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AMERICAN CLASSICS 


COLONIAL DAMES 


AND ar 


yh 
an 
ys 


GOOD WIVES, 


Alice Morse E arle 


U 


FREDERICK UNGAR PUBLISHING CO. 
NEW YORK 


Republished 1962 


Printed in the 
United States of America 


Library of Congress 
Catalog Card No. 62-9682 


CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 
Lf. Consorts and Relicts . : 2 , ; : I 

IL. Women of Affairs , : 5 45 
LILI, “ Double-Tongued and Naughty Women & tae. 
LV. Boston Neighbors . : . : ‘ 0g 
V. A Fearfull Female. T; ee lens A : ek 
VI. Two Colonial Adventuresses : ; : 160 
VIL. The Universal Friend. : : ; Mes 
VIII, Eighteenth-Century Manners ; : 5 789 
IX. Their Amusements and Accomplishments . 21.206 


X. Daughters of Liberty  . : : . - 240 
XI. A Revolutionary Housewife. : . ~ 1 250 
XIL, Fireside Industries : . . é : 276 


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COLONIAL DAMES AND 
GOODWIVES. 


CHAPTER I. 
CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 


N the early days of the colony of Massa- 

chusetts Bay, careful lists were sent 
back to old England by the magistrates, tell- 
ing what “to provide to send to New Eng- 
land” in order to ensure the successful 
planting and tender nourishing of the new 
settlement. The earliest list includes such 


b 


homely items as “benes and pese,” tame 
turkeys, copper kettles, all kinds of useful 
apparel and wholesome food; but the list is 
headed with a most significant, a typically 
Puritan item, W/inzsters. The list sent to 
the Emigration Society by the Virginian 
colonists might equally well have been 
headed, to show their most crying need, 


with the word Wives. 


2 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


The settlement of Virginia bore an entirely 
different aspect from that of New England. 
It was a community of men who planted 
Jamestown. There were few women among 
the early Virginians. In 1608 one Mistress 
Forrest came over with a maid, Anne Bur- 
raws, who speedily married John Laydon, the 
first marriage of English folk in the new 
world. But wives were few, save squaw-wives, 
therefore the, colony did (uate (htiversnoin 
Edwin Sandys, at a meeting of the Emigra- 
tion Society in London, in November, 1619, 
said that “though the colonists are seated 
there in their persons some four years, they 
are not settled in their minds to make it 
their place of rest and continuance.” They 
all longed to gather gold and to return to 
England as speedily as possible, to leave 
that state of “solitary uncouthness,” as one 
planter called it. Sandys and that delight- 
ful gentleman, the friend and patron of 
Shakespeare, the Earl of Southampton, 
planned, as an anchor in the new land, to 
send out a cargo of wives for these planters, 
that the plantation might “grow in genera- 
tions and not be pieced out from without.” 
In 1620 the Jonathan and the London Mer- 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 3 


chant brought ninety maids to Virginia on a 
venture, and a most successful venture it 
proved. 

There are some scenes in colonial life 
which stand out of the past with much clear- 
ness of outline, which seem, though no 
details survive, to present to us a vivid pic- 
ture. One is this landing of ninety possi- 
ble wives — ninety homesick, seasick but 
timidly inquisitive English girls — on James- 
town beach, where pressed forward, eagerly 
and amorously waiting, about four hundred 
lonely emigrant bachelors — bronzed, sturdy 
men, in leather doublets and breeches and 
cavalier hats, with glittering swords and 
bandoleers and fowling-pieces, without doubt 
in their finest holiday array, to choose and 
secure one of these fair maids as a wife. 
Oh, what a glorious and all-abounding court- 
ing, a mating-time, was straightway begun 
on the Virginian shore on that happy day in 
May. A man needed a quick eye, a ready 
tongue, a manly presence, if he were to 
succeed against such odds in supply and 
demand, and obtain a fair one, or indeed 
any one, from this bridal array. But whoso- 
ever he won was indeed a prize, for all were 


4 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


asserted to be “ young, handsome, honestly 
educated maids, of honest life and carriage”’ 
— what more could any man desire? Gladly 
did the husband pay to the Emigration 
Company the one hundred and twenty 
pounds of leaf tobacco, which formed, in one 
sense, the purchase money for the wife. 
This was then valued at about eighty dol- 
lars: certainly a man in that matrimonial 
market got his money’s worth; and the 
complaining colonial chronicler who asserted 
that ministers and milk were the only cheap 
things in New England, might have added 
—and wives the only cheap things in 
Virginia. 

It was said by old writers that some of 
these maids were seized by fraud, were 
trapanned in England, that unprincipled 
spirits “took up rich yeomans’ daughters to 
serve his Majesty as breeders in Virginia 
unless they paid money for their release.” 
This trapanning was one of the crying 
abuses of the day, but in this case it seems 
scarcely present. For the girls appear to 
have been given a perfectly fair showing in 
all this barter. They were allowed to marry 
no irresponsible men, to go nowhere as ser- 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 5 


vants, and, indeed, were not pressed to marry 
at all if against their wills. They were to 
be “housed lodged and provided for of diet” 
until they decided to accept a husband. 
Naturally nearly all did marry, and from the 
unions with these young, handsome and 
godly-carriaged maids sprang many of our 
respected Virginian families. 

No coquetry was allowed in this mating. 
A girl could not promise to marry two men, 
under pain of fine or punishment; and at — 
least one presumptuous and grasping man 
was whipped for promising marriage to two 
girls at the same time —as he deserved to 
be when wives were so scarce. 

Other ship-loads of maids followed, and 
with the establishment of these Virginian 
families was dealt, as is everywhere else 
that the family exists, a fatal blow at a com- 
munity of property and interests, but the 
colony flourished, and the civilization of the 
new world was begun. For the unit of 
society may be the individual, but the mole- 
cule of civilization is the family. When 
men had wives and homes and children they 
“sett down satysfied’’ and no longer sighed 
for England. Others followed quickly and 


6 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


eagerly ; in three years thirty-five hundred 
emigrants had gone from England to Vir- 
ginia, a marked contrast to the previous 
years of uncertainty and dissatisfaction. 
Virginia was not the only colony to import 
wives for its colonists. In 1706 His Majesty 
Louis XIV. sent a company of twenty young 
girls to the Governor of Louisiana, Sieur de 
Bienville, in order to consolidate his colony. 
They were to be given good homes, and to 
be well married, and it was thought they 
would soon teach the Indian squaws many 
useful domestic employments. These young 
girls were of unspotted reputation, and up- 
right lives, but they did not love their new 
homes; a dispatch of the Governor says : — 


The men in the colony begin through habit to 
use corn as an article of food, but the women, 
who are mostly Parisians, have for this kind of 
food a dogged aversion which has not been sub- 
dued. Hence they inveigh bitterly against his 
Grace the Bishop of Quebec who they say has 
enticed them away from home under pretext of 
sending them to enjoy the milk and honey of the 
land of promise. 


I don’t know how this venture succeeded, 
but I cannot fancy anything more like the 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. y) 


personification of incompatibility, of inevita- 
ble failure, than to place these young Paris- 
ian women (who had certainly known of the 
manner of living of the court of Louis XIV.) 
in a wild frontier settlement, and to expect 
them to teach Western squaws any domes- 
tic or civilized employment, and then to 
make them eat Indian corn, which they 
loathed as do the Irish peasants. Indeed, 
they were to be pitied. They rebelled and 
threatened to run away — whither I cannot 
guess, nor what they would eat save Indian 
corn if they did run away — and they stirred 
up such a dissatisfaction that the imbroglio 
was known as the Petticoat Rebellion, and 
the governor was much jeered at for his un- 
successful wardship and his attempted matri- 
monial agency. 

In 1721 eighty young girls were landed 
in Louisiana as wives, but these were not 
godly-carriaged young maids ; they had been 
taken from Houses of Correction, especially 
from Paris. In 1728 came another company 
known as filles a la cassette, or casket girls, 
for each was given by the French govern- 
ment a casket of clothing to carry to the new 
home; and in later years it became a matter 


8 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


of much pride to Louisianians that their 
descent was from the casket-girls, rather 
than from the correction-girls. 

Another wife-market for the poorer class 
of wifeless colonists was afforded through 
the white bond-servants who came in such 
numbers to the colonies. They were of 
three classes; convicts, free-willers or re- 
demptioners, and “kids’’ who had been 
stolen and sent to the new world, and sold 
often for a ten years’ term of service. 

Maryland, under the Baltimores, was the 
sole colony that not only admitted convicts, 
but welcomed them. The labor of the 
branded hand of the malefactor, the educa- 
tion and accomplishments of the social out- 
cast, the acquirements and skill of the intem- 
perate or over-competed tradesman, all were 
welcome to the Maryland tobacco-planters ; 
and the possibilities of rehabilitation of for- 
tune, health, reputation, or reéstablishment 
of rectitude, made the custom not unwel- 
come to the convict or to the redemptioner. 
Were the undoubted servant no rogue, but 
an honest tradesman, crimped in English 
coast-towns and haled off to Chesapeake 
tobacco fields, he did not travel or sojourn, 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 9 


perforce, in low company. He might find 
himself in as choice companionship, with 
ladies and gentlemen of as high quality, 
albeit of the same character, as graced those 
other English harbors of ne’er-do-weels, 
Newgate or the Fleet Prison. Convicts 
came to other colonies, but not so openly 
nor with so much welcome as to Maryland. 
All the convicts who came to the colonies 
were not rogues, though they might be con- 
demned persons. The first record in Talbot © 
County, Maryland, of the sale of a convict, 
was in September, 1716, “in the third Yeare 
of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King 
George.”’ And it was for rebellion and trea- 
son against his Majesty that this convict, 
Alexander MacQueen, was taken in Lanca- 
shire and transported to America, and sold 
to Mr. Daniel Sherwood for seven years of 
service. With him were transported two 
shiploads of fellow-culprits, Jacobites, on the 
Friendship and Goodspeed. The London 
Public Record Office (on American and West 
India matters, No. 27) records this transpor- 
tation and says the men were “Scotts Reb- 
ells.” [Earlier still, many of the rebels of 
Monmouth’s rebellion had been sold for 


10 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


transportation, and the ladies of the court 
of James had eagerly snatched at the profits 
of the sale. Even William Penn begged for 
twenty of these rebels for the Philadelphia 
market. Perhaps he was shrewd enough to 
see in them good stock for successful citi- 
zens. Were the convict a condemned crimi- 
nal, it did not necessarily follow that he or 
she was thoroughly vicious. One English 
husband is found petitioning on behalf of 
his wife, sentenced to death for stealing but 
three shillings and sixpence, that her sen- 
tence be changed to transportation to Vir- 
ginia. 

The redemptioners were willing immi- 
grants, who contracted to serve for a period 
of time to pay the cost of their passage, 
which usually had been prepaid to the mas- 
ter of the ship on which they came across- 
seas. At first the state of these free-willers 
was not unbearable. Alsop, who was a re- 
demptioner, has left on record that the work 
required was not excessive : — 


Five dayes and a halfe in the summer is the 
allotted time that they worke, and for two months, 
when the Sun is predominate in the highest pitch 
of his heat, they claim an antient and customary 


CONSORTS ANDIRELICTS: II 


Priviledge to repose themselves three hours in 
the day within the house. In Winter they do 
little but hunt and build fires. 

and he adds, “the four years I served there 
were not to me so slavish as a two-year’s 
servitude of a handicraft apprenticeship in 
London.” 

Many examples can be given where these 
redemptioners rose to respected social posi- 
tions. In 1654, in the Virginia Assembly 
were two members and one Burgess who had 
been bond-servants. Many women-servants 
married into the family of their employers. 
Alsop said it was the rule for them to marry 
well. The niece of Daniel Defoe ran away 
to escape a marriage entanglement in Eng- 
land, sold herself on board ship as a redemp- 
tioner when but eighteen years old, was 
bought by a Mr. Job of Cecil County, Mary- 
land, and soon married her employer’s son. 
Defoe himself said that so many good maid- 
servants were sold to America that there was 
a lack for domestic service in England. 

Through the stealing of children and 
youths to sell in the plantations, it can 
plainly be seen that many a wife of respect- 
able birth was furnished to the colonists. 


I2 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


This trade, by which, as Lionel Gatford 
wrote in 1657, young people were “cheat- 
ingly duckoyed by Poestigeous Plagiaries,”’ 
grew to a vast extent, and in it, emulating 
the noble ladies of the court, women of 
lower rank souzht a degrading profit. 

In 1655, in Middlesex, England, one Chris- 
tian Sacrett was called to answer the com- 
plaint of Dorothy Perkins :— 


She accuseth her fora spirit, one that takes 

upp men women and children, and sells them 
a-shipp to be conveyed beyond the sea, having 
inticed and inveigled one Edward Furnifall and 
Anna his wife with her infant to the waterside, 
and putt them aboard the ship called the Planter 
to be conveied to Virginia. 
Sarah Sharp was also asserted to be a 
“common taker of children and setter to 
Betray young men and maydens to be con- 
veyed to ships.” 

The life of that famous rogue, Bamfylde- 
Moore Carew, shows the method by which 
servants were sold in the plantations. The 
captain,with his cargo of trapanned English- 
men, among whom was Carew, cast anchor 
at Miles River in Talbot County, Maryland, 
ordered a gun to be fired, and a hogshead 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 13 


of rum sent on board. On the day of the 
sale the men prisoners were all shaved, the 
women dressed in their best garments, their 
neatest caps, and brought on deck. Each 
prisoner, when put up for sale, told his 
trade. Carew said he was a good rat-catcher, 
beggar, and dog-trader, “upon which the 
Captain hearing takes the planter aside, and 
tells him he did but jest, being a man of 
humour, and would make an excellent school- 
master.” Carew escaped before being sold, 
was captured,* whipped, and had a heavy 
iron collar, ‘‘called in Maryland a pot-hook,”’ 
riveted about his neck; but he again fled 
to the Indians, and returned to England. 
Kidnapped in Bristol a second time, he was 
nearly sold on Kent Island to Mr. Dulaney, 
but again escaped. He stole from a house 
“jolly cake, powell, a sort of Indian corn 
bread, and good omani, which is kidney beans 
ground with Indian corn, sifted, put into a 
pot to boil, and eaten with molasses.’ Jolly 
cake was doubtless johnny cake; omani, 
hominy ; but powell is a puzzle. He made 
his way by begging to Boston, and shipped 
to England, from whence he was again tra- 
panned. 


14 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


In the Sot-Weed Factor are found some 
very coarse but graphic pictures of the wo- 
men emigrants of the day. When the factor 
asks the name of “one who passed for cham- 
bermaid” in one planter’s house in “ Mary- 
Land,” she answered with an affected blush 
and simper : — 

In better Times, ere to this Land 

I was unhappily Trapanned, 

Perchance as well I did appear 

As any lord or lady here. 

Not then a slave for twice two year. 

My cloaths were fashionably new, 

Nor were my shifts of Linnen blue; 
But things are changed, now at the Hoe 
I daily work, and barefoot go. 

In weeding corn, or feeding swine, 

I spend my melancholy time. 

Kidnap’d and fool’d I hither fled, 

To shun a hated nuptial Bed. 

And to my cost already find 

Worse Plagues than those I left behind. 


Another time, being disturbed in his sleep, 
the factor finds that in an adjoining room, — 
. a jolly Female Crew 
Were Deep engaged in Lanctie Loo. 
Soon quarreling over their cards, the plant- 
ers’ wives fall into abuse, and one says scorn- 
fully to the other : — 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 15 


. tho now so brave, 
I knew you late a Four Years Slave, 
What if for planters wife you go, 
Nature designed you for the Hoe. 


The other makes, in turn, still more bitter 
accusations. It can plainly be seen that such 
social and domestic relations might readily 
produce similar scenes, and afford opportu- 
nity for “crimination and recrimination.” 

Still we must not give the Sot-Weed 
Factor as sole or indeed as entirely unbiased 
authority. The testimony to the house- 
wifely virtues of the Maryland women by 
other writers is almost universal. In the 
London Magazine of 1745 a traveler writes, 
and his word is similar to that of many 
others : — 


The women are very handsome in general 
and most notable housewives ; everything wears 
the Marks of Cleanliness and Industry in their 
Houses, and their behavior to their Husbands 
and Families is very edifying. You cant help 
observing, however, an Air of Reserve and some- 
what that looks at first to a Stranger like Unsoci- 
ableness, which is barely the effect of living at a 
great Distance from frequent Society and their 
Thorough Attention to the Duties of their Sta- 


16 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


tions. Their Amusements are quite Innocent 
and within the Circle of a Plantation or two. 
They exercise all the Virtues that can raise Ones 
Opinion of too light a Sex. 

The girls under such good Mothers generally 
have twice the Sense and Discretion of the Boys. 
Their Dress is neat and Clean and not much 
bordering upon the Ridiculous Humour of the 
Mother Country where the Daughters seem 
Dress’d up for a Market. 


Wives were just as eagerly desired in New 
England as in Virginia, and a married estate 
was just as essential toa man of dignity. As 
a rule, emigration thereto was in families, 
but when New England men came to the 
New World, leaving their families behind 
them until they had prepared a suitable 
home for their reception, the husbands were 
most impatient to send speedily for their 
consorts. Letters such as this, of Mr. Eyre 
from England to Mr. Gibb in Piscataquay, 
in 1631, show the sentiment of the settlers 
in the matter :— 


I hope by this both your wives are with you 
according to your desire. I wish all your wives 
were with you, and that so many of you as desire 
wives had such as they desire. Your wife, Roger 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 17 


Knight’s wife, and one wife more we have already 
sent you and more you shall have as you wish 
for them. 


This sentence, though apparently polyga- 
mous in sentiment, does not indicate an in- 
tent to establish a Mormon settlement in 
New Hampshire, but is simply somewhat 
shaky in grammatical construction, and erra- 
tic in rhetorical expression. 

Occasionally, though rarely, there was 
found a wife who did not long for a New 
England home. Governor Winthrop wrote 
to England on July 4, 1632 :— 


I have much difficultye to keepe John Gal- 
lope heere by reason his wife will not come. I 
marvayle at her womans weaknesse, that she will 
live myserably with her children there when she 
might live comfortably with her husband here. 
I pray perswade and further her coming by all 
means. If she will come let her have the re- 
mainder of his wages, if not let it be bestowed to 
bring over his children for soe he desires. 


Even the ministers’ wives did not all sigh 
for the New World. The removal of Rev. 
Mr. Wilson to New England “ was rendered 
difficult by the indisposition of his dearest 


18 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


consort thereto.” He very shrewdly inter- 
preted a dream to her in favor of emigration, 
with but scant and fleeting influence upon 
her, and he sent over to her from America 
encouraging accounts of the new home, and 
he finally returned to England for her, and 
after much fasting and prayer she consented 
to ‘accompany him over an ocean to a 
wilderness.” 

Margaret Winthrop, that undaunted yet 
gentle woman, wrote of her at this date (and 
it gives us a glimpse of a latent element of 
Madam Winthrop’s character), “ Mr. Wilson 
cannot yet persuade his wife to go, for all he 
hath taken this pains to come and fetch her. 
I marvel what mettle she is made of. Sure 
she will yield at last.” She did yield, and 
she did not go uncomforted. Cotton Mather 
wrote past 


Mrs. Wilson being thus perswaded over into 
the difficulties of an American desart, her kins- 
man Old Mr. Dod, for her consolation under 
those difficulties did send her a present with an 
advice which had in it something of curiosity. 
He sent her a dvass counter, a sé/ver crown, and 
a gold jacobus, all severally wrapped up; with 
this instruction unto the gentleman who carried 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. I9 


it; that he should first of all deliver only the 
counter, and if she received it with any shew of 
discontent, he should then take no notice of her ; 
but if she gratefully resented that small thing for 
the sake of the hand it came from, he should 
then go on to deliver the silver and so the gold, 
but withal assure her that such would be the dis- 
pensations to her and the good people of New 
England. If they would be content and thank- 
ful with such little things as God at first bestowed 
upon them, they should, in time, have silver and 
gold enough. Mrs. Wilson accordingly by her 
cheerful entertainment of the least remembrance 
from good old Mr. Dod, gave the gentleman 
occasion to go through with his whole present 
and the annexed advice. 

We could not feel surprised if poor home- 
sick, heartsick, terrified Mrs. Wilson had 
“eratefully resented”? Mr. Dod’s apparently 
mean gift to her on the eve of exile in our 
modern sense of resentment; but the mean- 
ing of resent in those days was to perceive 
with a lively sense of pleasure. I do not 
know whether this old Mr. Dod was the poet 
whose book entitled A Poste from Old Mr. 
Dods Garden was one of the first rare books 
of poetry printed in New England in colonial 
days. 


20 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


We truly cannot from our point of view 
“ marvayle”’ that these consorts did not long 
to come to the strange, sad, foreign shore, 
but wonder that they were any of them ever 
willing to come; for to the loneliness of an 
unknown world was added the dread horror 
of encounter with a new and almost myste- 
rious race, the blood-thirsty Indians, and if 
the poor dames turned from the woods to 
the shore, they were menaced by “ murther- 
ing pyrates.”’ 

Gurdon Saltonstall, in a letter to John 
Winthrop of Connecticut, as late as 1690, 
tells in a few spirited and racy sentences of 
the life the women lead in an unprotected 
coast town. It was sad and terrifying in 
reality, but there is a certain quaintness of 
expression and metaphor in the narrative, 
and asly and demure thrusting at Mr. James, 
that give it an element of humor. It was 
written of the approach of a foe ‘ whose 
entrance was as formidable and swaggering 
as their exit was sneaking and shamefull.”’ 
Saltonstall says :— 


My Wife & family was posted at your Hons 
a considerable while, it being thought to be ye 
most convenient place for ye feminine Rendez- 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 21 


vous. Mr James who Commands in Chiefe 
among them, upon ye coast alarum given, faceth 
to ye Mill, gathers like a Snow ball as he goes, 
makes a Generall Muster at yor Honrs, and so 
posts away with ye greatest speed, to take advan- 
tage of ye neighboring rocky hills, craggy, inac- 
cessible mountains; so that W'tever els is lost 
Mr James and ye Women are safe. 


All women did not run at the approach 
of the foe. A marked trait of the settlers’ 
wives was their courage; and, indeed, oppor- 
tunities were plentiful for them to show their 
daring, their fortitude, and their ready in- 
genuity. Hannah Bradley, of Haverhill, 
Mass., killed one Indian by throwing boiling 
soap upon him. This same domestic weapon 
_ was also used by some Swedish women near 
Philadelphia to telling, indeed to killing 
advantage. A young girl in the Minot 
House in Dorchester, Mass., shovelled live 
coals on an Indian invader, and drove him 
off. <A girl, almost a child, in Maine, shut a 
door, barred, and held it while thirteen women 
and children escaped to a neighboring block- 
house before the door and its brave defender 
were chopped down. Anthony Bracket and 
his wife, captured by savages, escaped through 


22. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


the wife’s skill with the needle. She liter- 
ally sewed together a broken birch-bark canoe 
which they found, and in which they got 
safely away. Most famous and fierce of all 
women fighters was Hannah Dustin, who, in 
1697, with another woman and a boy, killed 
ten Indians at midnight, and started for 
home; but, calling to mind a thought that 
no one at home, without corroborative evi- 
dence, would believe this extraordinary tale, 
they returned, scalped their victims, and 
brought home the bloody trophies safely to 
Haverhill. 

Some Englishwomen were forced to marry 
their captors, forced by torture or dire dis- 
tress. Some, when captured in childhood, 
learned to love their savage husbands. 
Eunice Williams, daughter of the Deerfield 
minister, a Puritan who hated the Indians 
and the church of Rome worse than he hated 
Satan, came home to her Puritan kinsfolk 
wearing two abhorred symbols, a blanket 
and crucifix, and after a short visit, not lik- 
ing a civilized life, returned to her Indian 
brave, her wigwam, and her priest. 

I have always been glad that it was my 
far-away grandfather, John Hoar, who left 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 23 


his Concord home, and risked his life as 
ambassador to the Indians to rescue one of 
these poor “captivated” English wives, Mrs. 
Mary Rowlandson, after her many and heart- 
rending ‘“‘savage removes.” Iam proud of 
his “very forward spirit” which made him 
dare attempt this bold rescue, as I am proud 
of his humanity and his intelligent desire to 
treat the red men as human beings, furnish- 
ing about sixty of them with a home and 
decent civilizing employment. I picture him 
“‘stoutly not afraid,’ as he entered the camp, 
and met the poor captive, and treated suc- 
cessfully with her savage and avaricious 
master, and then I see him tenderly leading 
her, ragged, half-starved, and exhausted, 
through the lonely forests home —home to 
the “doleful solemn_sight.”’..of--despotled 
Wancaster).L Andel amgiproudstoojsot ithe 
noble “Boston gentlewomen”’ who raised 
twenty pounds as a ransom for Mary Row- 
landson, ‘“‘the price of her redemption,” and 
tenderly welcomed her to their homes and 
hearts, so warmly that she could write of 
them as “pitiful, tender-hearted, and com- 
passionate Christians,’ whose love was so 
bountiful that she could not declare it. If 


24, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


any one to-day marvels that English wives 
did not “much desire the new and doleful 
land,” let them read this graphic and thrill- 
ing story of the Captevity, Removes, and Re- 
stauration of Mary Rowlandson, and he will 
marvel that the ships were not crowded 
with disheartened settlers returning to their 
“faire English homes.” 

A very exciting and singular experience 
befell four dignified Virginian wives in Ba- 
con’s Rebellion, not through the Indians 
but at the hands of their erstwhile friends. 
It is evident that the women of that colony 
were universally and deeply stirred by the 
romance of this insurrection and war. We 
hear of their dramatic protests against the 
tyranny of the government. Sarah Drum- 
mond ‘vowed she feared the power of Eng- 
land no more than a broken straw, and 
contemptuously broke a stick of wood to 
illustrate her words. Major Chriesman’s 
wife, “the honor of her sex,’ when her hus- 
band was about to be put to death as a 
rebel, begged Governor Berkeley to kill her 
instead, as he had joined Bacon wholly at her 
solicitation. One Ann Cotton was moved 
by the war to drop into literary composition, 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS, 25 


an extraordinary ebullition for a woman in 
her day, and to write an account of the 
Rebellion, as she deemed “too wordishly,” 
but which does not read now very wordishly 
to us. But for these four dames, the wives 
of men prominent in the army under Gover- 
nor Berkeley — prime men, Ann Cotton calls 
them — was decreed a more stirring partici- 
pation in the excitements of war. The bril- 
liant and erratic young rebel, Bacon, pressed 
them into active service. He sent out 
companies of horsemen and tore the gentle- 
women from their homes, though they re- 
monstrated with much simplicity that they 
were “indisposed ” to leave ; and he brought 
them to the scene of battle, and heartlessly 
placed them —with still further and more 
acute indisposition— on the “ fore-front ” 
of the breastworks as a shield against the 
attacks of the four distracted husbands with 
their soldiers. We read that “the poor Gen- 
tlewomen were mightily astonished at this 
project ; neather were their husbands void of 
amazements at this subtill invention.” The 
four dames were “exhibited to the view of 
their husbands and ffriends in the towne 
upon the top of the smalle worke he had 


26 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


cast up in the night where he caused them 
to tarey till he had finished his defence 
against the enemy’s shott.” There stood 
these four innocent and harmless wives, — 
‘“‘cuardian angells — the white gardes of the 
Divell,” shivering through the chill Septem- 
ber night till the glimmering dawn saw com- 
pleted the rampart of earth and logs, or the 
leaguer, as it was called by the writers with 
that exactness and absolute fitness of expres- 
sion which, in these old chronicles, gives 
such delight to the lover of good old Eng- 
lish. One dame was also sent to her hus- 
band’s camp as a “ white-aproned hostage” 
to parley with the Governor. And this hid- 
ing of soldiers behind women was done by 
the order of one who was called the most 
accomplished gentleman in Virginia, but 
whom we might dub otherwise if we wished, 
to quote the contemporary account, to “ op- 
pose him further with pertinances and vio- 
lent perstringes.” 

I wish I could truthfully say that one 
most odious and degrading eighteenth cen- 
tury English custom was wholly unknown 
in America — the custom of wife-trading, the 
selling by a husband of his wife to another 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 27 


man. I found, for a long time, no traces or 
hints of the existence of such a custom in 
the colonies, save in two doubtful cases. I 
did not wholly like the aspect of Governor 
Winthrop’s note of the suggestion of some 
members of the church in Providence, that 
if Goodman Verin would not give his wife 
full liberty to go to meeting on Sunday 
and weekly lectures as often as she wished, 
“the church should dispose her to some 
other man who would use her better.” I 
regarded this suggestion of the Providence 
Christians with shocked suspicion, but calmed 
myself with the decision that it merely indi- 
cated the disposition of Goodwife Verin as 
a servant. And again, in the records of the 
PPTiculer et OUrt) Ol Llarttord,.Conn,7in 
1645, I discovered this entry: ‘“ Baggett 
Egleston for bequething his wyfe to a young 
man is fyned 20 shillings.” Now, any reader 
can draw his conclusions as to exactly what 
this “bequething’”’ was, and I cannot see that 
any of us can know positively. So, though 
I was aware that Baggett was not a very re 
putable fellow, I chose to try to persuade 
myself that this exceedingly low-priced be- 
queathing did not really mean wife-selling. 


28 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


But just as I was “setting down satysfyed ” 
at the superiority in social ethics and moral- 
ity of our New England ancestors, I chanced, 
while searching in the Boston Evening Post 
of March 15, 1736, for the advertisement of 
a sermon on the virtues of our forbears, en- 
titled New England Tears and Fears of Eng- 
lands Dolours and Horrours, to find instead, 
by a malicious and contrary fate, this bit of 
unwelcome and mortifying news not about 
old England but about New England’s “ do- 
lours and horrours.” 

Boston. The beginning of last Week a pretty 
odd and uncommon Adventure happened in this 
Town, between 2 Men about a certain woman, 
each one claiming her as his Wife, but so it was, 
that one of them had actually disposed of his 
Right in her to the other for Fifteen Shillings 
this Currency, who had only paid ten of it in 
part, and refus’d to pay the other Five, inclining 
rather to quit the Woman and lose his Earnest ; 
but two Gentlemen happening to be present, 
who were Friends to Peace, charitably gave him 
half a Crown a piece, to enable him to fulfil his 
Agreement, which the Creditor readily took, and 
gave the Woman a modest Salute, wishing her 
well, and his Brother Sterling much Joy of his 
Bargain. 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 29 


The meagre sale-money, fifteen shillings, 
was the usual sum which changed hands in 
England at similar transactions, though one 
dame of high degree was sold for a hundred 
guineas. In 1858 the Stamford Mercury 
gave an account of a contemporary wife-sale 
in England, which was announced through 
the town by a bellman. The wife was led to 
the sale with a halter round her neck, and 
was “to be taken with all her faults.” Iam 
glad to say that this base British husband 
was sharply punished for his misdemeanor. 

It seems scarcely credible that the custom 
still exists in England, but in 1882 a hus- 
band sold his wife in Alfreton, Derbyshire ; 
and as late as the 13th July, 1887, Abraham 
Boothroyd, may his name be Anathema mara- 
natha, sold his wife Clara at Sheffield, Eng- 
land, for five shillings. 

A most marked feature of social life in 
colonial times was the belleship of widows. 
They were literally the queens of society. 
Fair maids had so little chance against them, 
swains were so plentiful for widows, that I 
often wonder whence came the willing men 
who married the girls the first time, thus 
offering themselves as the sacrifice at the 


30 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


matrimonial altar through which the girls 
could attain the exalted state of widowhood. 
Men sighed sometimes in their callow days 
for the girl friends of their own age, but as 
soon as their regards were cast upon a widow, 
the girls at once disappear from history, and 
the triumphant widow wins the prize. 
Another marked aspect of this condition 
of society was the vast number of widows in 
early days. In the South this was accounted 
for by one of their own historians as being 
through the universally intemperate habits 
of the husbands, and consequently their fre- 
quent early death. In all the colonies life 
was hard, exposure was great to carry on any 
active business, and the excessive drinking 
of intoxicating liquors was not peculiar to 
the Southern husbands any more than were 
widows. In 1698 Boston was said to be 
“full of widows and orphans, and many of 
them very helpless creatures.” It was 
counted that one sixth of the communicants 
of Cotton Mather’s church were widows. It 
is easy for us to believe this when we read 
of the array of relicts among which that 
aged but actively amorous gentleman, Judge 
Sewall, found so much difficulty in choosing 


CONSORTSVANDERELIGTS. 31 


a marriage partner, whose personal and 
financial charms he recounted with so much 
pleasurable minuteness in his diary. 

A. glowing tribute to one of these Boston 
widows was paid by that gossiping traveller, 
John Dunton, with so much evidence of deep 
interest, and even sentiment, that I fancy 
Madam Dunton could not have been wholly 
pleased with the writing and the printing 
thereof. He called this Widow Breck the 
“flower of Boston,” the “Chosen exemplar 
of what a Widow is.” He extols her high 
character, beauty, and resignation, and then 
bridles with satisfaction while he _ says, 
«Some have been pleas’d to say That were I 
in a single state they do believe she wou'd 
not be displeas’d with my addresses.” He 
rode on horseback on a long journey with 
his fair widow on a pillion behind him, and 
if his conversation on “Platonicks and the 
blisses of Matrimony” was half as tedious 
as his recounting of it, the road must indeed 
have seemed long. He says her love for 
her dead husband is as strong as death, but 
Widow Breck proved the strength of her 
constancy by speedily marrying a second 
husband, Michael Perry. 


32 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


As an instance of the complicated family 
relations which might arise in marrying 
widows, let me cite the familiar case of the 
rich merchant, Peter Sergeant, the builder 
of the famous Province House in Boston. I 
will use Mr. Shurtleff’s explanation of this 
bewildering gallimaufrey of widows and 
widowers : — 

He was as remarkable in his marriages as his 
wealth ; for he had three wives, the second hav- 
ing been a widow twice before her third venture ; 
and his third also a widow, and even becoming 
his widow, and lastly the widow of her third 
husband. 

To this I may add that this last husband, 
Simon Stoddart, also had three wives, that 
his father had four, of whom the last three 
were widows, — but all this goes beyond the 
modern brain to comprehend, and reminds 
us most unpleasantly of the wife of Bath. 

These frequent and speedy marriages were 
not wholly owing to the cxigencies of colonial 
life, but were the custom of the times in 
Europe as well. I read in the diary of the 
Puritan John Rous, in January, 1638, of this 
somewhat hasty wooing :— 


A gentleman carried his wife to London last 


GONSOATS) ANDURELICTS. 33 


week and died about eight o’clock at night, leav- 
ing her five hundred pounds a yearin land. The 
next day before twelve she was married to the 
journeyman woolen-draper that came to sell 
mourning to her. 


I do not believe John Rous made special 
note of this marriage simply because it was 
so speedy, but because it was unsuitable; as 
a landed widow was, in social standing, far 
above a journeyman draper. 

As we approach Revolutionary days, the 
reign of widows is still absolute. 

Washington loved at fifteen a fair un- 
known, supposed to be Lucy Grimes, after- 
ward mother of Gen. Henry Lee. To her 
he wrote sentimental poems, from which we 
gather (as might be expected at that age) 
that he was too bashful to reveal his love. 
A year later he writes : — 


I might, was my heart disengaged, pass my 
time very pleasantly as there’s a very agreeable 
Young Lady Lives in the same house; but as 
thats only adding fuel to the fire it makes me 
more uneasy ; for by often and unavoidably being 
in Company with her revives my former Passion 
for your Lowland Beauty; whereas was I to live 
more retired from young women, I might in some 


34. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


measure eliviate my sorrows by burying that 
chast and troublesome passion in the grave of 
oblivion or eternal forgetfulness. 


The amorous boy of sixteen managed to 
“bury this chast and troublesome passion,’ 
to find the “Young Lady in the house” 
worth looking at, and when he was twenty 
years old, to write to William Fantleroy thus 
of his daughter, Miss Bettie Fantleroy :— 


I purpose as soon as I recover my strength 
(from the pleurisy) to wait on Miss Bettie in 
hopes of a reconsideration of the former cruel 
sentence, and to see if I cannot obtain a decision 
in my favor. I enclose a letter to her. 


Later he fell in love with Mary Phillipse, 
who, though beautiful, spirited, and rich, did 
not win him. This love affair is somewhat 
shadowy in outline. Washington Irving 
thinks that the spirit of the alert soldier 
overcame the passion of the lover, and that 
Washington left the lists of love for those 
of battle, leaving the field to his successful 
rival, Colonel Morris. The inevitable widow 
in the shape of Madam Custis, with two 
pretty children and a fortune of fifteen thou- 
sand pounds sterling, became at last what he 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 35 


called his ‘agreeable partner for life,” and 
Irving thinks she was wooed with much des- 
patch on account of the reverses in the Phil- 
lipse episode. 

Thomas Jefferson was another example of 
a President who outlived his love-affair with 
a young girl, and married in serenity a more 
experienced dame. In his early correspond- 
ence he reveals his really tumultuous passion 
for one Miss Becca Burwell. He sighs like 
a furnace, and bemoans his stammering 
words of love, but fair Widow Martha Skel- 
ton made him eloquent. Many lovers sighed 
at her feet; two of them lingered in her 
drawing-room one evening to hear her sing a 
thrilling love-song to the accompaniment of 
Jefferson’s violin. The love-song and music 
were so expressive that the two disconsolate 
swains plainly read the story of their fate, 
and left the house in defeat. 

James Madison, supposed to be an irre- 
claimable old bachelor, succumbed at first 
sight to the charms of fair Widow Dorothy 
Todd, twenty years his junior, wooed her 
with warmth, and made her, as Dolly Madi- 
son, another Mrs. President. Benjamin 
Franklin also married a widow. 


36 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


The characteristic glamour which hung 
round every widow encircled Widow Sarah 
Syms, and Colonel Byrd gives a spirited 
sketch of her in 1732 :— 


In the evening Tinsley conducted me _ to 
Widow Syms’ house where I intended to take up 
my quarters. ‘This lady at first suspecting I was 
some lover put on a gravity that becomes a weed, 
but as soon as she learned who I was bright- 
ened up with an unusual cheerfulness and se- 
renity. She was a portly handsome dame, of the 
family of Esau, and seemed not to pine too 
much for the death of her husband. This widow 
is a person of lively and cheerful conversation 
with much less reserve than most of her coun- 
try women. It becomes her very well and sets 
off her other agreeable qualities to advantage. 
We tossed off a bottle of honest port which 
we relished with a broiled chicken. At nine 
I retired to my devotions, and then slept so 
sound that fancy itself was stupefied, else I 
should have dreamed of my most obliging land- 
lady. 


This “weed” who did not pine too much 
for her husband, soon married again, and be- 
came the mother of Patrick Henry; and the 
testimony of Colonel Byrd as to her lively 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. a7 


and cheerful conversation shows the heredity 
of Patrick Henry’s “ gift of tongues.” 
Hie! Betty Martin! tiptoe fine, 
Could n’t get a husband for to suit her mind! 

was a famous Maryland belle, to whom 
came a-courting two friends, young lawyers, 
named Dallam and Winston. It was a day 
of much masculine finery and the two im- 
pecunious but amicable friends possessed 
but one ruffled shirt between them, which 
each wore on courting-day. Such amiabil- 
ity deserved the reward it obtained, for, 
strange to say, both suitors won Betty 
Martin. Dallam was the first husband, — 
the sacrifice, —and left her a widow with 
three sons and a daughter. Winston did 
likewise, even to the exact number of 
children. Daughter Dallam’s son was Rich- 
ard Caswell, governor of South Carolina, 
and member of Congress. Daughter Win- 
ston’s son was William Paca, governor of 
Maryland, and member of the Continen- 
tal Congress. Both grandsons on their way 
to and from Congress always. visited 
their spirited old grandmother, who lived 
to be some say one hundred and twenty 
years old. 


38 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


There must have been afforded a certain 
satisfaction to a dying husband —of colo- 
nial times — through the confidence that, by 
unwavering rule, his widow would soon be 
cared for and cherished by another. There 
was no uncertainty as to her ultimate settle- 
ment in life, and even should she be unfor- 
tunate enough to lose her second partner, 
he still had every reason to believe that a 
third would speedily present himself. The 
Reverend Jonathan Burr when almost mori- 
bund, piously expressed himself to “that 
vertuous gentlewoman his wife with con- 
fidence”’ that she would soon be well pro- 
vided for; and she was, for ‘“‘she was very 
shortly after very honourably and comfort- 
ably married unto a gentleman of good 


d 


estate,” a magistrate, Richard Dummer, and 
lived with him nearly forty years. Pro- 
visions were always made by a man in his 
will in case his wife married again; scarcely 
ever to remove the property from her, but 
simply to re-adjust the division or condi- 
tions. And men often signed ante-nuptial 
contracts promising not to “meddle” with 
their wives’ property. One curious law 
should be noted in Pennsylvania, in 1690, 


CONSORTS*tANDERELICZS: 39 


that a widow could not marry till a year 
after her husband’s death. 

There seem to have been many advan- 
tages in marrying a widow — she might 
prove a valuable inheritance. The second 
husband appeared to take a real pride in de- 
manding and receiving all that was due to 
the defunct partner. As an example let 
me give this extract from a court record. 
On May 31st, 1692, the governor and coun- 
cil of Maryland were thus petitioned : — 


James Brown of St Marys who married the 
widow and relict of Thomas Pew deceased, by 
his petition humbly prays allowance for Two 
Years Sallary due to his Predecessor as Publick 
Post employed by the Courts, as also for the use 
of a Horse, and the loss of a Servant wholly, 
by the said Pew deputed in his sickness to Offi- 
ciate ; and ran clear away with his Horse, some 
Clothes &c., and for several months after not 
heard of. 


Now we must not be over-critical, nor 
hasty in judgment of the manners and mo- 
tives of two centuries ago, but those days 
are held up to us as days of vast submissive- 
ness and modesty, of patient long-suffering, 


40 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


of ignorance of extortion; yet I think we 
would search far, in these degenerate days, 
for aman who, having married a relict, would, 
two years after his ‘“‘ Predecessor’s’”’ death, 
have the colossal effrontery to demand of 
the government not only the back salary of 
said “‘ Predecessor,” but pay for the use of a 
horse stolen by the Predecessor’s own ser- 
vant — nay, more, for the value of the said 
servant who elected to run away. Truly 
James Brown builded well when he chose a 
wife whose departing partner had, like a 
receding wave, deposited much lucrative silt 
on the matrimonial shore, to be thriftily 
gathered in and utilized as a bridal dower by 
his not-too-sensitive successor. 

In fact it may plainly be seen that widows 
were life-saving stations in colonial social 
economy; one colonist expressed his at- 
titude towards widows and their Providential 
function as economic aids, thus :— 


Our uncle is not at present able to pay you 
or any other he owes money to. If he was able 
to pay he would; they must have patience till 
God enable him. As his wife died in mercy 
near twelve months since, it may be he may light 
of some rich widow that may make him capable 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 4I 


to pay ; except God in this way raise him he can- 
not pay you or any one else. 


It certainly must have been some satis- 
faction to every woman to feel within herself 
the possibility of becoming such a celestial 
agent of material salvation. 

I wish to state, in passing, that it is some- 
times difficult to judge as to the marital 
estate of some dames, to know whether they 
were widows at the time of the second mar- 
riage or not, for the prefixed Mrs. was used 
indifferently for married and single women, 
and even for young girls. Cotton Mather 
wrote of “ Mrs. Sarah Gerrish, a very beau- 
tiful and ingenious damsel seven years of 
age.” Rev. Mr. Tompson wrote a funeral 
tribute to a little girl of six, which is entitled 
and begins thus : — 


A Neighbors Tears dropt on ye grave of an 
Amiable Virgin, a pleasant Plant cut down in 
the blooming of her Spring viz; Mrs Rebecka 
Sewall Anno Aetatis 6, August ye 4t 1710. 


I saw this Pritty Lamb but t’ other day 
With a small flock of Doves just in my way 
Ah pitty tis Such Prittiness should die 
With rare alliances on every side. 

Had Old Physitians liv’d she ne’er had died. 


42 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


The pious old minister did not really mean 
by this tribute to the old-school doctors, 
that Mrs. Rebecka would have achieved 
earthly immortality. He modestly ends his 
poetic tribute thus :— 

Had you given warning ere you pleased to Die 

You might have had a Neater Elegy. 

These consorts and relicts are now but 

shadows of the past : — 


their bones are dust, 
.Their souls are with the saints, I trust. 


The honest and kindly gentlemen who were 
their husbands, sounded their virtues in 
diaries and letters ; godly ministers preached 
their piety in labored and dry-as-dust ser- 
mons. Their charms were sung by colonial 
poets in elegies, anagrams, epicediums, acros- 
tics, threnodies, and other decorous verse. 
It was reserved for a man of war, and nota 
very godly man of war either, to pean their 
good sense. Cervantes says that “womans 
counsel is not worth much, yet he who de- 
spises it is no wiser than he should be.” 
With John Underhill’s more gallant tribute 
to the counsel of a consort, we may fitly end 
this chapter. 


CONSORTS AND RELICTS. 43 


Myself received an arrow through my coat 
sleeve, a second against my helmet on the fore- 
head; so as if God in his Providence had not 
moved the heart of my wife to persuade me to 
carry it along with me (which I was unwilling to 
do) I had been slain. Give me leave to observe 
two things from hence; first when the hour of 
death is not yet come, you see God useth weak 
means to keep his purpose unviolated ; secondly 
let no man despise advice and counsel of his 
wife though she be a woman. It were strange to 
nature to think a man should be bound to fulfil 
the humour of a woman, what arms he should 
carry ; but you see God will have it so, that a 
woman should overcome a man. What with 
Delilahs flattery, and with her mournful tears, 
they must and will have their desire, when the 
hand of God goes along in the matter, and this 
to accomplish his own will. ‘Therefore let the 
clamor be quenched that I hear daily in my ears, 
that New England men usurp over their wives 
and keep them in servile subjection. The coun- 
try is wronged in this matter as in many things 
else. Let this precedent satisfy the doubtful, 
for that comes from the example of a rude sol- 
dier. If they be so courteous to their wives as 
to take their advice in warlike matters, how 
much more kind is the tender affectionate hus- 
band to honor his wife as the weaker vessel. 


44, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Yet mistake not. I say not they are bound to 
call their wives in council, though they are bound 
to take their private advice (so far as they 
see it make for their advantage 
and good). Instance 
Abraham. 


GHAPTERMIT. 
WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 


HE early history of Maryland seems 
singularly peaceful when contrasted 
with that of other colonies. There were few 
Indian horrors, few bitter quarrels, compar- 
atively few petty offences. In spite of the 
influx of convicts, there was a notable ab- 
sence of the shocking crimes and equally 
shocking punishments which appear on the 
court records of other provinces; it is also 
true that there were few schools and 
churches, and but scanty intellectual activity. 
Against that comparatively peaceful back- 
ground stands out one of the most remarka- 
ble figures of early colonial life in America 
— Margaret Brent; a woman who seemed 
more fitted for our day than her own. She 
was the first woman in America to demand 
suffrage, a vote, and representation. 
She came to the province in 1638 with her 
sister Mary (another shrewd and capable 


46 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


woman), her two brothers, and nine other 
colonists. The sisters at once took up land, 
built manorhouses, and shortly brought over 
more colonists; soon the court-baron and 
court-leet were held at Mary Brent’s home, 
St. Gabriel’s Manor, on old Kent Island. 
We at once hear of the sisters as active in 
business affairs, registering cattle marks, 
buying and selling property, attending with 
success to important matters for their bro- 
thers; and Margaret soon signed herself 
‘Attorney ‘for my brother) ce; tic 6 eana 
was allowed the right so to act. The Brents 
were friends and probably kinsfolk of Lord 
Baltimore, and intimate friends, also, of the 
governor of Maryland, Leonard Calvert. 
When the latter died in 1647, he appointed by 
nuncupation one Thomas Greene as his suc- 
cessor as governor, and Margaret Brent as 
his sole executrix, with the laconic instruc- 
tion to “ Take all and Pay all,” and to give 
one Mistress Temperance Pypott a mare 
colt. His estate was small, and if he had 
made Greene executor, and Mistress Mar- 
garet governor, he would have done a much 
more sensible thing; for Greene was vacil- 
lating and weak, and when an emergency 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 47 


arose, he had to come to Margaret Brent for 
help. The soldiers, who had assisted the 
government in recent troubles, were still un- 
paid, and Governor Calvert had pledged his 
official word and the property of Lord Balti- 
more that they should be paid in full. After 
his death an insurrection in the army seemed 
rising, when Mistress Brent calmly stepped 
in, sold cattle belonging to the Proprietary, 
and paid off the small but angry army. This 
was not the only time she quelled an incipi- 
ent mutiny. Her kinsman, Lord Baltimore, 
was inclined to find bitter fault, and wrote 
“tartly ’ when the news of her prompt action 
and attendant expenditure reached his ears; 
but the Assembly sent him a letter, gallantly 
upholding Mistress Brent in her ‘“ meddling,” 
saying with inadvertent humour, that his 
estate fared better in her hands than “any 
man elses.”’ 

Her astonishing stand for woman’s rights 
was made on January 21, 1647-48, two cen- 
turies and a half ago, and was thus re- 
corded : — 

Came Mrs Margaret Brent and requested to 


have vote in the House for herself and voyce 
allsoe, for that on the last Court 3rd January it 


48 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


was ordered that the said Mrs Brent was to be 
looked upon and received as his Ldp’s Attorney. 
The Governor deny’d that the s’d Mrs Brent 
should have any vote in the house. And the s’d 
Mrs Brent protested against all proceedings in 
this present Assembly unlesse she may be present 
and have vote as afores’d. 


With this protest for representation, and 
demand for her full rights, this remarkable 
woman does not disappear from our ken. 
We hear of her in 1651 as an offender, hav- 
ing been accused of killing wild cattle and 
selling the beef. She asserted with vigor 
and dignity that the cattle were her own, and 
demanded a trial by jury. 

And in 1658 she makes her last curtsey 
before the Assembly and ourselves, a living 
proof of the fallacy of the statement that 
men do not like strong-minded women. For 
at that date, at the fully ripened age of fifty- 
seven, she appeared as heir of an estate be- 
queathed to her by a Maryland gentleman as 
a token of his love and affection, and of his 
constant wish to marry her. She thus van- 
ishes out of history, in a thoroughly emin- 
ine réle, that of a mourning sweetheart ; yet 
standing signally out of colonial days as the 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 49 


most clear-cut, unusual, and forceful figure 
of the seventeenth century in Maryland. 
Another Maryland woman of force and 
fearlessness was Verlinda Stone. A letter 
from her to Lord Baltimore is still in the 
Maryland archives, demanding an investiga- 
tion of a fight in Anne Arundel County, in 
which her husband was wounded. The let- 
ter is businesslike enough, but ends in a 
fiery postscript in which she uses some pretty 
strong terms. Such women as these were 
not to be trifled with ; as Alsop wrote :— 


All Complemental Courtships drest up in criti- 
cal Rarities are meer Strangers to them. Plain 
wit comes nearest to their Genius, so that he 
that intends to Court a Maryland girle, must 
have something more than the tautologies of a 
long-winded speech to carry on his design. 


Elizabeth Haddon was another remarkable 
woman; she founded Haddonfield, New Jer- 
sey. Her father had become possessed of a 
tract of land in the New World, and she 
volunteered to come alone to the colony, and 
settle upon the land. She did so in 1701 
when she was but zzneleen years old, and 
conducted herself and her business with 


50 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


judgment, discretion, and success, and so 
continued throughout her long life. She 
married a young Quaker named Esthaugh, 
who may have been one of the attractions of 
the New World. Her idealized story has 
been told by L. Maria Child in her book 
The Youthful Emigrant. 

John Clayton, writing as early as 1688 of 
“ Observables”’ in Virginia, tells of several 
“acute ingenious gentlewomen”’ who carried 
on thriving tobacco-plantations, draining 
swamps and raising cattle and buying slaves. 
One near Jamestown was a fig-raiser. 

In all the Southern colonies we find these 
acute gentlewomen taking up tracts of land, 
clearing them, and cultivating their hold- 
ings. In the settlement of Pennsylvania, 
Mary Tewee took two thousand five hundred 
acres in what is now Lancaster County. She 
was the widow of a French Huguenot gen- 
tleman, the friend of William Penn, and had 
been presented at the court of Queen Anne. 

New England magistrates did not encour- 
age such independence. In the early days 
of Salem, “ maid-lotts ’’ were granted to sin- 
gle women, but stern Endicott wrote that it 
was best to abandon the custom, and “avoid 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 51 


all presedents & evil events of granting lotts 
vnto single maidens not disposed of.’ The 
town of Taunton, Mass., had an “ancient 
maid”’ of forty-eight years for its founder, 
one Elizabeth Poole; and Winthrop says she 
endured much hardship. Her gravestone 
says she was a “native of old England of 
good family, friends and prospects, all of 
which she left in the prime of her life to en- 
joy the religion of her conscience in this dis- 
tant wilderness. A great proprietor of the 
township of Taunton, a chief promoter of 
its settlement in 1639. Having employed 
the opportunity of her virgin state in piety, 
liberality and sanctity of manners, she died 
aged 65.” 

Lady Deborah Moody did not receive from 
the Massachusetts magistrates an over-cordial 
or very long-lived welcome. She is described 
as a “harassed and lonely widow voluntarily 
exiling herself for conscience’ sake.” Per- 
haps her running in debt for her Swampscott 
Jand and her cattle had quite as much to do 
with her unpopularity as her “error of deny- 
ing infant baptism.” But as she paid nine 
hundred or some say eleven hundred pounds 
for that wild land, it is no wonder she was 


52 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


“almost undone.” She was dealt with by 
the elders, and admonished by the church, 
but she “persisted” and finally removed to 
the Dutch, against the advice of all her 
friends. Endicott called her a dangerous 
woman, but Winthrop termed her a “wise 
and anciently religious woman.’ Among 
the Dutch she found a congenial home, and, 
unmolested, she planned on her Gravesend 
farm a well-laid-out city, but did not live to 
carry out her project. A descendant of one 
of her Dutch neighbors writes of her: — 

Tradition says she was buried in the north- 
west corner of the Gravesend church yard. Upon 
the headstone of those who sleep beside her we 
read the inscription /z der Heere entslapen — they 
sleep in the Lord. We may say the same of this 
brave true woman, she sleeps in the Lord. Her 
rest has been undisturbed in this quiet spot 
which she hoped to make a great city. 

It seems to be plain that the charge of the 
affairs of Governor John Winthrop, Jr., in 
New Haven was wholly in the hands of Mrs. 
Davenport, the wife of the minister, Rev. 
John Davenport. Many sentences in her 
husband’s letters show her cares for her 
friends’ welfare, the variety of her business 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 53 


duties, and her performance of them. He 
wrote thus to the Governor in 1658 :— 


For your ground; my wife speedily, even the 
same day she received your letter, spake with 
sundry about it, and received this answer, that 
there is no Indian corne to be planted in that 
quarter this yeare. Brother Boykin was willing 
to have taken it, but saith it is overrun with wild 
sorrell and it will require time to subdue it, and 
put it into tillage, being at present unfit to be im- 
proved. Goodman Finch was in our harbour 
when your letter came, & my wife went promptly 
downe, and met with yong Mr Lamberton to 
whom she delivered your letter. He offered 
some so bad beaver that my wife would not take 
it. My wife spake twise to him herself. My 
wife desireth to add that she received for you of 
Mr Goodenhouse 30s worth of beaver & 4s in 
wampum. She purposeth to send your beaver to 
the Baye when the best time is, to sell it for your 
advantage and afterwards to give you an account 
what it comes to. Your letter to Sarjiunt Bald- 
win my wife purposeth to carry to him by the rst 
opportunity. Sister Hobbadge has paid my wife 
in part of her debt to you a bushel of winter 
wheate. 


The letters also reveal much loving-kind- 
ness, much eagerness to be of assistance, 


54. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


equal readiness to welcome new-comers, and 
to smooth the rough difficulties in pioneer 
housekeeping. Rev. Mr. Davenport wrote 
in August, 1655, from New Haven to Gov. 
Winthrop at Pequot : — 


Hon’? Sir, — We did earnestly expect your 
coming hither with Mrs. Winthrop and your fam- 
ilie, the last light moone, having intelligence 
that a vessel wayted upon you at Pequot for that 
end, and were thereby encouraged to provide 
your house, that it might be fitted in some 
measure, for your comfortable dwelling in it, 
this winter. 

My wife was not wanting in her endeavors 
to set all wheeles in going, all hands that she 
could procure on worke, that you might find all 
things to your satisfaction. ‘Though she could 
not accomplish her desires to the full, yet she 
proceeded as farr as she could; whereby many 
things are done viz. the house made warme, the 
well cleansed, the pumpe fitted for your use, some 
provision of wood layed in, and 20 loades will be 
ready, whensoever you come; and sundry, by my 
wife’s instigation, prepared 30 bush. of wheate for 
the present and sister Glover hath 12 lb of can- 
dles ready for you. My wife hath also procured 
a maid servant for you, who is reported to be 
cleanly and saving, her mother is of the church, 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 55 


and she is kept from a place in Connectacot 
where she was much desired, to serve you... . 

If Mrs. Winthrop knew how wellcome she 
will be to us she would I believe neglect whatso- 
ever others doe or may be forward to suggest for 
her discouragement. Salute her, with due re- 
spect, in my name and my wife’s, most affec- 
tionately. 


Madam Davenport also furnished the 
rooms with tables and “chayres,” and “ took 
care of yor apples that they may be kept 
safe from the frost that Mrs. Winthrop may 
have the benefit of them,” and arranged 
to send horses to meet them; so it is not 
strange to learn in a postscript that the 
hospitable kindly soul, who thus cheerfully 
worked to “redd the house,” had a “paine 
ins theesolesuofihersteet, sespecially "in’ the 
evening ;” and a little later on to know she 
was ‘“‘valetudinarious, faint, thirsty, of little 
appetite yet cheerful.” 

All these examples, and many others help 
to correct one very popular mistake. It 
seems to be universally believed that the 
“business woman” is wholly a product of the 
nineteenth century. Most emphatically may 
it be affirmed that such is not the case. I 


56 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


have seen advertisements dating from 1720 to 
1800, chiefly in New England newspapers, of 
women teachers, embroiderers, jelly-makers, 
cooks, wax-workers, japanners, mantua-mak- 
ers, —all truly feminine employments ; and 
also of women dealers in crockery, musical 
instruments, hardware, farm products, gro- 
ceries, drugs, wines, and spirits, while Haw- 
thorne noted one colonial dame who carried 
on a blacksmith-shop. Peter Faneuil’s ac- 
count books show that he had accounts in 
small English wares with many Boston 
tradeswomen, some of whom bought many 
thousand pounds’ worth of imported goods 
ina year. Alice Quick had fifteen hundred 
pounds in three months; and I am glad to 
say that the women were very prompt in 
payment, as well as active in business. By 
Stamp Act times, the names of five women 
merchants appear on the Salem list of traders 
who banded together to oppose taxation. 

It is claimed by many that the ‘‘ newspa- 
per-woman”’ is a growth of modern times. 
I give examples to prove the fallacy of this 
statement. Newspapers of colonial times 
can scarcely be said to have been edited, they 
were simply printed or published, and all that 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 57 


men did as newspaper-publishers, women did 
also, and did well. It cannot be asserted that 
these women often voluntarily or primarily 
started a newspaper; they usually assumed 
the care after the death of an editor husband, 
or brother, or son, or sometimes to assist 
while a male relative, through sickness or 
multiplicity of affairs, could not attend to his 
editorial or publishing work. 

Perhaps the most remarkable examples of 
women-publishers may be found in the God- 
dard family of Rhode Island. Mrs. Sarah 
Goddard was the daughter of Ludowick Up- 
dike, of one of the oldest and most respected 
families in that State. She received an ex- 
cellent education “in both useful and polite 
learning,’ and married Dr. Giles Goddard, a 
prominent physician and postmaster of New 
London. After becoming a widow, she went 
into the printing business in Providence 
about the year 1765, with her son, who was 
postmaster of that town. They published the 
Providence Gazette and Country Fournal, the 
only newspaper printed in Providence be- 
fore 1775. William Goddard was dissatisfied 
with his pecuniary profit, and he went to 
New York, leaving the business wholly with 


58 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES, 


his mother ; she conducted it with much abil- 
ity and success under the name Sarah God- 
dard & Company. I wish to note that she 
carried on this business not under her son’s 
name, but openly in her own behalf; and 
when she assumed the charge of the paper, 
she printed it with her own motto as the 
heading, Vor Populs Vox Det. 

William Goddard drifted to Philadelphia, 
where he published the Pennsylvania Chrout- 
cle for a short season, and in 1773 he re- 
moved to Baltimore and established himself 
in the newspaper business anew, with only, 
he relates, “the small capital of a single soli- 
tary guinea.” He found another energetic 
business woman, the widow Mrs. Nicholas 
Hasselbaugh, carrying on the printing-busi- 
ness bequeathed to her by her husband ; 
and he bought her stock in trade and estab- 
lished The Maryland Fournal and Baltimore 
Advertiser. It was the third newspaper pub- 
lished in Maryland, was issued weekly at ten 
shillings per annum, and was a well-printed 
sheet. But William Goddard had another 
bee in his bonnet. A plan was formed just 
before the Revolutionary War to abolish the 
general public post-office and to establish in 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 59 


its place a complete private system of post- 
riders from Georgia to New Hampshire. 
This system was to be supported by private 
subscription ; a large sum was already sub- 
scribed, and the scheme well under way, 
when the war ended all the plans. Goddard 
had this much to heart, and had travelled 
extensively through the colonies exploiting 
it. While he was away on these trips he 
left the newspaper and printing-house solely 
under the charge of his sister Mary Kath- 
arine Goddard, the worthy daughter of 
her energetic mother. From 1775 to 1784, 
through the trying times of the Revolution, 
and in a most active scene of military and 
political troubles, this really brilliant woman 
continued to print successfully and continu- 
ously her newspaper. The Yournal and 
every other work issued from her printing- 
presses were printed and published in her 
name, and it is believed chiefly on her own 
account. She was a woman of much intel- 
ligence and was also practical, being an ex- 
pert compositor of types, and fully conver- 
sant with every detail of the mechanical 
work of a printing-office. During this busy 
time she was also postmistress of Baltimore, 


60 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


and kept a bookshop. Her brother Wil- 
liam, through his futile services in this postal 
scheme, had been led to believe he would re- 
ceive under Benjamin Franklin and the new 
government of the United States, the ap- 
pointment of Secretary and Comptroller of 
the Post Office; but Franklin gave it to his 
own son-in-law, Richard Bache. Goddard, 
sorely disappointed but pressed in money 
matters, felt forced to accept the position of 
Surveyor of Post Roads. When Franklin 
went to France in 1776, and Bache became 
Postmaster-General, and Goddard again was 
not appointed Comptroller, his chagrin caused 
him to resign his office, and naturally to 
change his political principles. 

He retired to Baltimore, and soon there 
appeared in the Yournal an ironical piece 
(written by a member of Congress) signed 
Tom Tell Truth. From this arose a vast 
political storm. The Whig Club of Balti- 
more, a powerful body, came to Miss God- 
dard and demanded the name of the author; 
she referred them to her brother. On his 
refusal to give the author’s name, he was 
seized, carried to the clubhouse, bullied, and 
finally warned out of town and county. He 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 6I 


at once went to the Assembly at Annapolis 
and demanded protection, which was given 
him. He ventilated his wrongs in a pam- 
phlet, and was again mobbed and insulted. 
In 1779, Anna Goddard printed anony- 
mously in her paper Queries Political and 
Military, written really by General Charles 
Lee, the enemy and at one time presump- 
tive rival of Washington. This paper also 
raised a tremendous storm through which 
the Goddards passed triumphantly. Lee 
remained always a close friend of William 
Goddard, and bequeathed to him his valu- 
able and interesting papers, with the intent 
of posthumous publication; but, unfortu- 
nately, they were sent to England to be 
printed in handsome style, and were instead 
imperfectly and incompletely issued, and 
William Goddard received no benefit or 
profit from their sale. But Lee left him 
also, by will, a large and valuable estate in 
Berkeley County, Virginia, so he retired 
from public life and ended his days on a 
Rhode Island farm. Anna Katharine God- 
dard lived to great old age. The story of 
this acquaintance with General Lee, and of 
Miss Goddard’s connection therewith, forms 


62 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


one of the interesting minor episodes of the 
War. 

Just previous to the Revolution, it was 
nothing very novel or unusual to Baltimore- 
ans to see a woman edit a newspaper. The 
Maryland Gazette suspended on account of 
the Stamp Act in 1765, and the printer is- 
sued a paper called Zhe Apparition of the 
Maryland Gazette which ts not Dead but 
Sleepeth ; and instead of a Stamp it borea 
death’s head with the motto, ‘‘ The Times 
are Dismal, Doleful, Dolorous, Dollarless.” 
Almost immediately after it resumed pub- 
lication, the publisher died, and from 1767 
to 1775 it was carried on by his widow, 
Anne Katharine Green, sometimes assisted 
by her son, but for five years alone. The 
firm name was Anne Katharine Green & 
Son: and she also did the printing for the 
Colony. She was about thirty-six years old 
when she assumed the business, and was 
then the mother of six sons and eight daugh- 
ters. Her husband was the fourth genera- 
tion from Samuel Green, the first printer in 
New England, from whom descended about 
thirty ante-Revolutionary printers. Until 
the Revolution there was always a Printer 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 63 


Green in Boston. Mr. Green’s partner, Wil- 
liam Rind, removed to Williamsburg and 
printed there the Verginza Gazette. At his 
death, widow Clementina Rind, not to be 
outdone by Widow Green and Mother and 
Sister Goddard, proved that what woman 
has done woman can do, by carrying on the 
business and printing the Gagzeé¢e till her 
own death in 1775. 

It is indeed a curious circumstance that, 
on the eve of the Revolution, so many 
southern newspapers should be conducted by 
women. Long ere that, from 1738 to 1740, 
Elizabeth Timothy, a Charleston woman, 
widow of Louis Timothy, the first librarian 
of the Philadelphia Library company, and 
publisher of the South Carolina Gazette, 
carried on that paper after her husband’s 
death; and her son, Peter Timothy, suc- 
ceeded her. In 1780 his paper was sus- 
pended, through his capture by the British. 
He was exchanged, and was lost at sea with 
two daughters and a grandchild, while on 
his way to Antigua to obtain funds. He 
had a varied and interesting life, was a friend 
of Parson Whitefield, and was tried with 
him on a charge of libel against the South 


64 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Carolina ministers. In 1782 his widow, 
Anne Timothy, revived the Gazette, as had 
her mother-in-law before her, and published 
it successfully twice a week for ten years 
till her death in 1792. She had a large 
printing-house, corner of Broad and King 
Streets, Charleston, and was printer to the 
State; truly a remarkable woman. 

Peter Timothy’s sister Mary married 
Charles Crouch, who also was drowned when 
on avessel bound to New York. He wasa 
sound Whig and set up a paper in opposi- 
tion to the Stamp Act, called Zhe South 
Carolina Gazette and Country Fournal. 
This was one of the four papers which were 
all entitled Gazettes in order to secure cer- 
tain advertisements that were all directed 
by law ‘“‘to be inserted in the South Caro- 
lina Gazette.” Mary Timothy Crouch con- 
tinued the paper for a short time after her 
husband’s death; and in 1780 shortly before 
the surrender of the city to the British, went 
with her printing-press and types to Salem, 
where for a few months she printed The 
Salem Gazette and General Advertiser. I 
have dwelt at some length on the activity 
and enterprise of these Southern women, 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 65 


because it is another popular but unstable 
notion that the women of the North were 
far more energetic and capable than their 
Southern sisters ; which is certainly not the 
case in this line of business affairs. 

Benjamin and James Franklin were not 
the only members of the Franklin family 
who were capable newspaper-folk. James 
Franklin died in Newport in 1735, and his 
widow Anne successfully carried on the busi- 
ness for many years. She had efficient aid 
in her two daughters, who were quick and 
capable practical workers at the compositor’s 
case, having been taught by their father, 
whom they assisted in his lifetime. Isaiah 
Thomas says of them : — 


A gentleman who was acquainted with Anne 
Franklin and her family, informed me that he 
had often seen her daughters at work in the 
printing house, and that they were sensible and 
amiable women. 


We can well believe that, since they had 
Franklin and Anne Franklin blood in them. 
This competent and industrious trio of women 
not only published the Newport Mercury, 
but were printers for the colony, supplying 


66 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


blanks for public offices, publishing pam- 
phlets, etc. In 1745 they printed for the Gov- 
ernment an edition of the laws of the colony 
of 340 pages, folio. Still further, they car- 
ried on a business of “ printing linens, cali- 
coes, silks, &c., in figures, very lively and 
durable colors, and without the offensive 
smell which commonly attends lnen-print- 
ing.” Surely there was no lack of business 
ability on the distaff side of the Franklin 
house. 

Boston women gave much assistance to 
their printer-husbands. Ezekiel Russel, the 
editor of that purely political publication, 
The Censor, was in addition a printer of 
chap-books and ballads which were sold from 
his stand near the Liberty Tree on Boston 
Common. His wife not only helped him in 
printing these, but she and another young 
woman of his household, having ready pens 
and a biddable muse, wrote with celerity 
popular and seasonable ballads on passing 
events, especially of tragic or funereal cast ; 
and when these ballads were printed with a 
nice border of woodcuts of coffins and death’s 
heads, they often had a long and profitable 
run of popularity. After his death, Widow 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 67 


Russel still continued ballad making and 
monging. 

It was given to a woman, Widow Margaret 
Draper, to publish the only newspaper which 
was issued in Boston during the siege, the 
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News 
Letter. Anda miserable little sheet it was, 
vari-colored, vari-typed, vari-sized; of such 
poor print that itis scarcely readable. When 
the British left Boston, Margaret Draper left 
also, and resided in England, where she re- 
ceived a pension from the British govern- 
ment. 

The first newspaper in Pennsylvania was 
entitled Zhe American Weekly Mercury. It 
was “imprinted by Andrew Bradford” in 
1719. Hewasason of the first newspaper 
printer in New York, William Bradford, 
Franklin’s “cunning old fox,” who lived to 
be ninety-two years old, and whose quaint 
tombstone may be seen in Trinity Church- 
yard. At Andrew’s death in 1742, the paper 
appeared in mourning, and it was announced 
that it would be published by “the widow 
Bradford.” She took in a partner, but speed- 
ily dropped him, and carried it on in her own 
name till 1746. During the time that Cor- 


68 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


nelia Bradford printed this paper it was re- 
markable for its good type and neatness. 

The Connecticut Courant and The Centinel 
were both of them published for some years 
by the widows of former proprietors. 

The story of John Peter Zenger, the pub- 
lisher of Zhe New York Weekly Fournal, 
is one of the most interesting episodes in 
our progress to free speech and liberty, but 
cannot be dwelt on here. The feminine por- 
tion of his family was of assistance to him. 
His daughter was mistress of a famous New 
York tavern that saw many remarkable vis- 
itors, and heard much of the remarkable talk 
of Zenger’s friends. After his death in 1746, 
his newspaper was carried on by his widow 
for two years. Her imprint was, ‘New 
York; Printed by the Widow Cathrine 
Zenger at the Printing-Office in Stone 
Street; Where Advertisements are taken 
in, and all Persons may be supplied with this 
Paper.” 

The whole number of newspapers printed 
before the Revolution was not very large; 
and when we see how readily and success- 
fully this considerable number of women 
assumed the cares of publishing, we know 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 69 


that the “newspaper woman”’ of that day 
was no rare or presumptuous creature, any 
more than is the “ newspaper-woman”’ of 
our own day, albeit she was of very different 
ilk; but the spirit of independent self-reli- 
ance, when it became necessary to exhibit 
self-reliance, was as prompt and as stable in 
the feminine breast a century and a half ago 
as now. ‘Then, as to-day, there were doubt- 
less scores of good wives and daughters who 
materially assisted their husbands in their 
printing-shops, and whose work will never be 
known. 

There is no doubt that our great-grand- 
mothers possessed wonderful ability to man- 
age their own affairs, when it became neces- 
sary to do so, even in extended commercial 
operations. It is easy to trace in the New 
England coast towns one influence which 
tended to interest them, and make them ca- 
pable of business transactions. They con- 
stantly heard on all sides the discussion of 
foreign trade, and were even encouraged to 
enter into the discussion and the traffic. 
They heard the Windward Islands, the Isle 
of France, and Amsterdam, and Canton, and 
the coast of Africa described by old travelled 


70 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


mariners, by active young shipmasters, in a 
way that put them far more in touch with 
these far-away foreign shores, gave them 
more knowledge of details of life in those 
lands, than women of to-day have. And 
women were encouraged, even urged, to take 
an active share in foreign trade, in commer- 
cial speculation, by sending out a “venture” 
whenever a vessel put out to sea, and when- 
ever the small accumulation of money earned 
by braiding straw, knitting stockings, selling 
eggs or butter, or by spinning and weaving, 
was large enough to be worth thus investing ; 
and it needed not to be a very large sum to 
be deemed proper for investment. Whena 
ship sailed out to China with cargo of gin- 
seng, the ship’s owner did not own all the 
solid specie in the hold — the specie that was 
to be invested in the rich and luxurious pro- 
ducts of far Cathay. Complicated must have 
been the accounts of these transactions, for 
many were the parties in the speculation. 
There were no giant monopolies in those 
days. The kindly ship-owner permitted even 
his humblest neighbor to share his profits. 
And the profits often were large. The 
stories of some of the voyages, the adven- 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 71 


tures of the business contracts, read like a 
fairy tale of commerce. In old letters may 
be found reference to many of the ventures 
sent by women. One young woman wrote 


in 1759:— 


Inclos’d is a pair of Earrings Pleas ask 
Captin Oliver to carry them a Ventur fer me if 
he Thinks they will fetch anything to the Vally 
of them; tell him he may bring the effects in 
anything he thinks will answer best. 


One .ot the , “effects » jbrought; to: this 
young woman, and to hundreds of others, 
was a certain acquaintance with business 
transactions, a familiarity with the methods 
of trade. When the father or husband died, 
the woman could, if necessary, carry on his 
business to a successful winding-up, or con- 
tinue it in the future. Of the latter enter- 
prise many illustrations might be given. In 
the autumn of 1744 a large number of promi- 
nent business men in Newport went into a 
storehouse on a wharf to examine the outfit 
of a large privateer. A terrible explosion of 
gunpowder took place, which killed nine of 
them. One of the wounded was Sueton 
Grant, a Scotchman, who had come to Amer- 


72 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


icain 1725. His wife, on hearing of the acci- 
dent, ran at once to the dock, took in at a 
glance the shocking scene and its demands 
for assistance, and cutting into strips her 
linen apron with the housewife’s scissors she 
wore at her side, calmly bound up the wounds 
of her dying husband. Mr. Grant was at this 
time engaged in active business; he had 
agencies in Europe, and many privateers 
afloat. Mrs. Grant took upon her shoulders 
these great responsibilities, and successfully 
carried them on for many years, while she ed- 
ucated her children, and cared for her home. 

A good example of her force of character 
was once shown in a court of law. She had 
an important litigation on hand and large 
interests at stake, when she discovered the 
duplicity of her counsel, and her consequent 
danger. She went at once to the court- 
room where the case was being tried ; when 
her lawyer promptly but vainly urged her to 
retire. The judge, disturbed by the inter- 
ruption, asked for an explanation, and Mrs. 
Grant at once unfolded the knavery of her 
counsel and asked permission to argue her 
own case. Her dignity, force, and lucidity 
so moved the judge that he permitted her to 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 73 


address the jury, which she did in so con- 
vincing a manner as to cause them to 
promptly render a verdict favorable to her. 
She passed through some trying scenes at 
the time of the Revolution with wonderful 
decision and ability, and received from every 
one the respect and deference due to a 
thorough business man, though she was a 
woman. 

In New York the feminine Dutch blood 
showed equal capacity in business matters ; 
and it is said that the management of con- 
siderable estates and affairs often was as- 
sumed by widows in New Amsterdam. Two 
noted examples are Widow De Vries and 
Widow Provoost. The former was married 
in 1659, to Rudolphus De Vries, and after 
his death she carried on his Dutch trade — 
not only buying and selling foreign goods, 
but going repeatedly to Holland in the posi- 
tion of supercargo on her own ships. She 
married Frederick Phillipse, and it was 
through her keenness and thrift and her pro- 
fitable business, as well as through his own 
success, that Phillipse became the richest 
man in the colony and acquired the largest 
West Indian trade. 


74 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Widow Maria Provoost was equally suc- 
cessful at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, and had a vast Dutch business cor- 
respondence. Scarce a ship from Spain, 
the Mediterranean, or the West Indies, but 
brought her large consignments of goods. 
She too married a second time, and as 
Madam James Alexander filled a most dig- 
nified position in New York, being the only 
person besides the Governor to own a two- 
horse coach. Her house was the finest in 
town, and such descriptions of its various 
apartments as “the great drawing-room, the 
lesser drawing-room, the blue and gold 
leather room, the green and gold leather 
room, the chintz room, the great tapestry 
room, the little front parlour, the back par- 
lour,”’ show its size and pretensions. 

Madam Martha Smith, widow of Colonel 
William Smith of St. George’s Manor, Long 
Island, was a woman of affairs in another 
field. In an interesting memorandum left 
by her we read :— 


Jan ye 16, 1707. My company killed a year- 
ling whale made 27 barrels. Feb ye 4, Indian 
Harry with his boat struck a whale and called 
for my boat to help him. I had but a third which 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 75 


was 4 barrels. Feb 22, my two boats & my sons 
and Floyds boats killed ayearling whale of which 
I had half — made 36 barrels, my share 18 bar- 
rels. Feb 24 my company killed a school whale 
which made 35 barrels. March 13, my company 
killed a small yearling made 30 barrels. March 
17, my company killed two yearlings in one day ; 
one made 27, the other 14 barrels. 


We find her paying to Lord Cornbury fif- 
teen pounds, a duty on “‘ye 20th part of her 
eyle.” And she apparently succeeded in her 
enterprises. 

In early Philadelphia directories may be 
found the name of “Margaret Duncan, 
Merchant, No. 1 S. Water St.” This capa- 
ble woman had been shipwrecked on her 
way to the new world. In the direst hour 
of that extremity, when forced to draw lots 
for the scant supply of food, she vowed to 
build a church in her new home if her life 
should be spared. The “Vow Church” in 
Philadelphia, on Thirteenth Street near Mar- 
ket Street, for many years proved her fulfil- 
ment of this vow, and also bore tribute to 
the prosperity of this pious Scotch Presby- 
terian in her adopted home. 

Southern women were not outstripped by 


76 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


the business women of the north. No more 
practical woman ever lived in America than 
Eliza Lucas Pinckney. Whena young girl 
she resided on a plantation at Wappoo, 
South Carolina, owned by her father, George 
Lucas. He was Governor of Antigua, and 
observing her fondness for and knowledge 
of botany, and her intelligent power of ap- 
plication of her knowledge, he sent to her 
many tropical seeds and plants for her 
amusement and experiment in her garden. 
Among the seeds were some of indigo, which 
she became convinced could be profitably 
grown in South Carolina. She at once de- 
termined to experiment, and planted indigo 
seed in March, 1741. The young plants 
started finely, but were cut down by an un- 
usual frost. She planted seed a second 
time, in April, and these young indigo-plants 
were destroyed by worms. Notwithstand- 
ing these discouragements, she tried a third 
time, and with success. Her father was 
delighted with her enterprise and persist- 
ence, and when he learned that the indigo 
had seeded and ripened, sent an English- 
man named Cromwell—an experienced in- 
digo-worker — from Montserrat to teach his 





WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 77 


daughter Eliza the whole process of extract- 
ing the dye from the weed. Vats were built 
on Wappoo Creek, in which was made the 
first indigo formed in Carolina. It was of 
indifferent quality, for Cromwell feared the 
successful establishment of the industry in 
America would injure the indigo trade in 
his own colony, so he made a mystery of the 
process, and put too much lime in the vats, 
doubtless thinking he could impose upon a 
woman. But Miss Lucas watched him care- 
fully, and in spite of his duplicity, and 
doubtless with considerable womanly power 
of guessing, finally obtained a successful 
knowledge and application of the complex 
and annoying methods of extracting indigo, 
— methods which required the untiring at- 
tention of sleepless nights, and more “ judg- 
ment’ than intricate culinary triumphs. 
After the indigo was thoroughly formed by 
steeping, beating, and washing, and taken 
from the vats, the trials of the maker were 
not over. It must be exposed to the sun, but 
if exposed too much it would be burnt, if 
too little it would rot. Myriads of flies col- 
lected around it and if unmolested would 
quickly ruin it. If packed too soon it would 


78 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


sweat and disintegrate. So, from the first 
moment the tender plant appeared above 
ground, when the vast clouds of destroying 
grasshoppers had to be annihilated by flocks 
of hungry chickens, or carefully dislodged 
by watchful human care, indigo culture and 
manufacture was a distressing worry, and 
was made still more unalluring to a feminine 
experimenter by the fact that during the 
weary weeks it laid in the “steepers’’ and 
‘“‘beaters’’ it gave forth a most villainously 
offensive smell. 

Soon after Eliza Lucas’ hard-earned suc- 
cess she married Charles Pinckney, and it is 
pleasant to know that her father gave her, 
as part of her wedding gift, all the indigo on 
the plantation. She saved the whole crop 
for seed, —and it takes about a bushel of 
indigo seed to plant four acres, —and she 
planted the Pinckney plantation at Ashepoo, 
and gave to her friends and neighbors small 
quantities of seed for individual experiment ; 
all of which proved successful. The culture 
of indigo at once became universal, the news- 
papers were full of instructions upon the 
subject, and the dye was exported to Eng- 
land by 1747, in such quantity that merchants 


WOMEN OF AFFATRS. 79 


trading in Carolina petitioned Parliament for 
a bounty on Carolina indigo. An act of 
Parliament was passed allowing a bounty of 
sixpence a pound on indigo raised in the 
British-American plantations and imported 
directly to Great Britain. Spurred on by 
this wise act, the planters applied with re- 
doubled vigor to the production of the article, 
and soon received vast profits as the rewards 
of their labor and care. It is said that just 
previous to the Revolution more children 
were sent from South Carolina to England 
to receive educations, than from all the other 
colonies, — and this through the profits of 
indigo and rice. Many indigo planters 
doubled their capital every three or four 
years, and at last not only England was sup- 
plied with indigo from South Carolina, but 
the Americans undersold the French in 
many European markets. It exceeded all 
other southern industries in importance, and 
became a general medium of exchange. 
When General Marion’s young nephew was 
sent to school at Philadelphia, he started off 
with a wagon-load of indigo to pay his ex- 
penses. The annual dues of the Winyah 
Indigo Society of Georgetown were paid in 


80 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


the dye, and the society had grown so 
wealthy in 1753, that it established a large 
charity school and valuable library. 

Ramsay, the historian of South Carolina, 
wrote in 1808, that the indigo trade proved 
more beneficial to Carolina than the mines of 
Mexico or Peru to old or new Spain. By 
the year of his writing, however, indigo 
(without waiting for extermination through 
its modern though less reliable rivals, the 
aniline dyes) had been driven out of South- 
ern plantations by its more useful and pro- 
fitable field neighbor, King Cotton, that had 
been set on a throne by the invention of a 
Yankee schoolmaster. The time of great- 
est production and export of indigo was just 
previous to the Revolution, and at one time 
it was worth four or five dollars a pound. 
And to-day only the scanty records of the 
indigo trade, a few rotting cypress boards of 
the steeping-vats, and the blue-green leaves 
of the wild wayside indigo, remain of all 
this prosperity to show the great industry 
founded by this remarkable and intelligent 
woman. 

The rearing of indigo was not this young 
girl’s only industry. I will quote from vari- 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. SI 


ous letters written by her in 1741 and 1742 
before her marriage, to show her many 
duties, her intelligence, her versatility :— 


Wrote my father on the pains I had taken to 
bring the Indigo, Ginger, Cotton, Lucern, and 
Casada to perfection and had greater hopes from 
the Indigo, if I could have the seed earlier, than 
any of ye rest of ye things I had tried. 

I have the burthen of 3 Plantations to trans- 
act which requires much writing and more busi- 
ness and fatigue of other sorts than you can 
imagine. But lest you should imagine it too bur- 
thensome to a girl in my early time of life, give 
me leave to assure you I think myself happy that 
I can be useful to so good a father. 

Wont you laugh at me if I tell you I am so 
busy in providing for Posterity I hardly allow 
myself time to eat or sleep, and can but just 
snatch a moment to write to you and a friend or 
two more. I am making a large plantation of 
oaks which I look upon as my own property 
whether my father gives me the land or not, 
and therefore I design many yeer hence when 
oaks are more valuable than they are now, 
which you know they will be when we come to 
build fleets. I intend I say two thirds of the 
produce of my oaks for a charity (Ill tell you my 
scheme another time) and the other third for 


82 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


those that shall have the trouble to put my design 
in execution. 

I have a sister to instruct, and a parcel of 
little negroes whom I have undertaken to teach 
to read. 

The Cotton, Guinea Corn, and Ginger planted 
was cutt off by a frost. I wrote you in a former 
letter we had a good crop of Indigo upon the 
ground. I make no doubt this will prove a valu- 
able commodity in time. Sent Gov. Thomas 
daughter a tea chest of my own doing. 

I am engaged with the Rudiments of Law to 
which I am but a stranger. If you will not laugh 
too immoderately at me Ill trust you with a Se- 
crett. I have made two Wills already. I knowI 
have done no harm for I conn’d my Lesson per- 
fect. A widow hereabouts with a pretty little for- 
tune teazed me intolerably to draw a marriage 
settlement, but it was out of my depth and I ab- 
solutely refused it— so she got an able hand to 
do it—indeed she could afford it— but I could 
not get off being one of the Trustees to her set- 
tlement, and an old Gent" the other. I shall be- 
gin to think myself an old woman before I am a 
young one, having such mighty affairs on my 
hands. 


I think this record of important work could 
scarce be equalled by any young girl in a 





WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 83 


comparative station of life nowadays. And 
when we consider the trying circumstances, 
the difficult conditions, in which these varied 
enterprises were carried on, we can well be 
amazed at the story. 

Indigo was not the only important staple 
which attracted Mrs. Pinckney’s attention, 
and the manufacture of which she made a 
success. In 1755 she carried with her to 
England enough rich silk fabric, which she 
had raised and spun and woven herself in 
the vicinity of Charleston, to make three fine 
silk gowns, one of which was presented to 
the Princess Dowager of Wales, and another 
to Lord Chesterfield. This silk was said to 
be equal in beauty to any silk ever imported. 

This was not the first American silk that 
had graced the person of English royalty. 
In 1734 the first windings of Georgia silk 
had been taken from the filature to England, 
and the queen wore a dress made thereof at 
the king’s next birthday. Still earlier in the 
field Virginia had sent its silken tribute to 
royalty. Inthe college library at Williams- 
burg, Va., may be seen a letter signed 
“Charles R.” — his most Gracious Majesty 
Charles the Second. It was written by his 


84. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Majesty’s private secretary, and addressed to 
Governor Berkeley for the king’s loyal sub- 
jects in Virginia. It reads thus :— 


Trusty and Well beloved, We Greet you Well. 
Wee have received wth much content ye dutifull 
respects of Our Colony in ye present lately made 
us by you & ye councill there, of ye first product 
of ye new Manufacture of Silke, which as a marke 
of Our Princely acceptation of yor duteys & for 
yor particular encouragement, etc. Wee have been 
commanded to be wrought up for ye use of Our 
Owne Person. 

And earliest of all is the tradition, dear to 
the hearts of Virginians, that Charles I. was 
crowned in 1625 in a robe woven of Virginia 
silk. The Queen of George III. was the last 
English royalty to be similarly honored, for 
the next attack of the silk fever produced 
a suit for an American ruler, George Wash- 
ington. 

The culture of silk in America was an in- 
dustry calculated to attract the attention of 
women, and indeed was suited to them, but 
men were not exempt from the fever; and 
the history of the manifold and undaunted 
efforts of governor’s councils, parliaments, 
noblemen, philosophers, and kings to force 





WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 85 


silk culture in America forms one of the 
most curious examples extant of persistent 
and futile efforts to run counter to positive 
economic conditions, for certainly physical 
conditions are fairly favorable. 

South Carolina women devoted themselves 
with much success to agricultural experi- 
ments. Henry Laurens brought from Italy 
and naturalized the olive-tree, and his daugh- 
ter, Martha Laurens Ramsay, experimented 
with the preservation of the fruit until her 
productions equalled the imported olives. 
Catharine Laurens Ramsay manufactured 
opium of the first quality. In 1755 Henry 
Laurens’ garden in Ansonborough was en- 
riched with every curious vegetable product 
from remote quarters of the world that his 
extensive mercantile connections enabled him 
to procure, and the soil and climate of South 
Carolina to cherish. He introduced besides 
olives, capers, limes, ginger, guinea grass, 
Alpine strawberries (bearing nine months in 
the year), and many choice varieties of fruits. 
This garden was superintended by his wife, 
Mrs. Elinor Laurens. 

Mrs. Martha Logan was a famous botanist 
and florist. She was born in 1702, and was 


86 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


the daughter of Robert Daniel, one of the 
last proprietary governors of South Carolina. 
When fourteen years old, she married George 
Logan, and all her life treasured a beautiful 
and remarkable garden. When seventy years 
old, she compiled from her knowledge and 
experience a regular treatise on gardening, 
which was published after her death, with 
the title Zhe Garden's Kalendar. It was 
for many years the standard work on garden- 
ing in that locality. 

Mrs. Hopton and Mrs. Lamboll were early 
and assiduous flower-raisers and experiment- 
ers in the eighteenth century, and Miss 
Maria Drayton, of Drayton Hall, a skilled 
botanist. 

The most distinguished female botanist of 
colonial days was Jane Colden, the daughter 
of Governor Cadwallader Colden, of New 
York. Her love of the science was inherited 
from her father, the friend and correspondent 
of Linnzus, Collinson, and other botanists. 
She learned a method of taking leaf-impres- 
sions in printers’ ink, and sent careful im- 
pressions of American plants and leaves to 
the European collectors. John Ellis wrote 
of her to Linnzeus in April, 1758 :— 


WOMEN OF AFFAIRS. 87 


This young lady merits your esteem, and does 
honor to your system. She has drawn and de- 
scribed four hundred plants in your method. Her 
father has a plant called after her Coldenia. Sup- 
pose you should call this new genus Coldenella 
or any other name which might distinguish her. 


Peter Collinson said also that she was the 
first lady to study the Linnzan system, and 
deserved to be celebrated. Another tribute 
to her may be found in a letter of Walter 
Rutherford’s : — 


From the middle of the Woods this Family 
corresponds with all the learned Societies in 
Europe. His daughter Jenny is a Florist and 
Botanist. She has discovered a great number of 
Plants never before described and has given their 
Properties and Virtues, many of which are found 
useful in Medicine and she draws and colours 
them with great Beauty. Dr. Whyte of Edinburgh 
is in the number of her correspondents. 

Nobu luc makesethe, best, Cheese: Lever ate 
in America. 


The homely virtue of being a good cheese- 
maker was truly a saving clause to 
palliate and excuse so much 
feminine scientific 
knowledge. 


CHAPTER III. 
‘“ DOUBLE-TONGUED AND NAUGHTY WOMEN.” 


AM much impressed in reading the court 
records of those early days, to note the 
vast care taken in all the colonies to prevent 
lying, slandering, gossiping, backbiting, and 
idle babbling, or, as they termed it, ‘ brab- 
ling ;”’ to punish “common sowers and mov- 
ers’’ — of dissensions, I suppose. 

The loving neighborliness which proved 
as strong and as indispensable a foundation 
for a successful colony as did godliness, 
made the settlers resent deeply any viola- 
tions, though petty, of the laws of social 
kindness. They felt that what they termed 
“opprobrious schandalls tending to defa- 
macon and disparagment’”’ could not be en- 
dured. 

One old author declares that “ blabbing, 
babbling, tale-telling, and discovering the 
faults and frailities of others is a most Com- 
mon and evill practice.” He asserts that a 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. 89 


woman should be a “main store house of 
secresie, a Maggazine of taciturnitie, the 
closet of connivence, the mumbudget of si- 
lence, the cloake bagge of rouncell, the cap- 
case, fardel, or pack of friendly toleration ;”’ 
which, as a whole, seems to be a good deal 
to ask. Men were, as appears by the records, 
more frequently brought up for these offences 
of the tongue, but women were not spared 
either in indictment or punishment. In 
Windsor, Conn., one woman was whipped 
for “ wounding”’ a neighbor, not in the flesh, 
but in the sensibilities. 

In 1652 Joane Barnes, of Plymouth, Mass., 


) 


was indicted for “slandering,” and sentenced 
“to sitt in the stockes during the Courts 
pleasure, and a paper whereon her facte writ- 
ten in Capitall letters to be made faste vnto 
her hatt or neare vnto her all the tyme of 
her sitting there.’ In 1654 another Joane 
in Northampton County, Va., suffered a pe- 
culiarly degrading punishment for slander. 
She was ‘“‘drawen ouer the Kings Creeke at 
the starne of a boate or Canoux, also the 
next Saboth day in the tyme of diuine ser- 
uis” was obliged to present herself before 
the minister and congregation, and acknow- 


90 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


ledge her fault, and ask forgiveness. This 
was an old Scotch custom. The same year 
one Charlton called the parson, Mr. Cotton, 
a “black cotted rascal,’ and was punished 
therefor in the same way. Richard Buckland, 
for writing a slanderous song about Ann 
Smith, was similarly pilloried, bearing a paper 
on his hat inscribed /zzmzcus Libellus, and 
since possibly all the church attendants did 
not know Latin, to publicly beg Ann’s for- 
giveness in English for his libellous poesy. 
The punishment of offenders by exposing 
them, wrapped in sheets, or attired in foul 
clothing, on the stool of repentance in the 
meeting-house in time of divine service, has 
always seemed to me specially bitter, un- 
seemly, and unbearable. 

It should be noted that these suits for 
slander were between persons in every sta- 
tion of life. When Anneke Jans Bogardus 
(wife of Dominie Bogardus, the second estab- 
lished clergyman in New Netherlands), would 
not remain in the house with one Grietje van 
Salee, a woman of doubtful reputation, the 
latter told throughout the neighborhood that 
Anneke had lifted her petticoats when cross- 
ing the street, and exposed her ankles in un- 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. g!I 


seemly fashion; and she also said that the 
Dominie had sworn a false oath. Action for 
slander was promptly begun, and witnesses 
produced to show that Anneke had flourished 
her petticoats no more than was seemly 
and tidy to escape the mud. Judgment was 
pronounced against Grietje and her hus- 
band. She had to make public declaration 
in the Fort that she had lied, and to pay 
three guilders. The husband had to pay 
a fine, and swear to the good character of 
the Dominie and good carriage of the Domi- 
nie’s wife, and he was not permitted to 
carry weapons in town,—a galling punish- 
ment. 

Dominie Bogardus was in turn sued sev- 
eral times for slander, — once by Thomas 
Hall, the tobacco planter, simply for saying 
that Thomas’ tobacco was bad; and again, 
wonderful to relate, by one of his deacons — 
Deacon Van Cortlandt. 

Special punishment was provided for 
women. Old Dr. Johnson said gruffly to a 
lady friend: ‘‘Madam, there are different 
ways of restraining evil; stocks for men, a 
ducking-stool for women, pounds for beasts.” 
The old English instrument of punishment, 


Q2 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


—as old as the Doomsday survey, — the 
cucking-stool or ducking-stool, was in vogue 
here, was insultingly termed a “publique 
convenience,” and was used in the Southern 
and Central colonies for the correction of 
common scolds. We read in Blackstone’s 
Commentaries, “A common scold may be 
indicted and if convicted shall be sentenced 
to be placed in a certain engine of correction 
called the trebucket, castigatory, or cucking- 
stool.” Still another name for this “engine” 
was a “gum-stool.”’ The brank, or scold’s 
bridle, —a cruel and degrading means of 
punishment employed in England for “curst 
queans”’ as lately as 1824, was unknown 
in America. A brank may be seen at the 
Guildhall in Worcester, England. One at 
Walton-on-Thames bears the date 1633. On 
the Isle of Man, when the brank was re- 
moved, the wearer had to say thrice, in pub- 
lic, “‘ Tongue, thou hast lied.” I do not find 
that women ever had to “run the gaunt- 
elope” as did male offenders in 1685 in Bos- 
ton, and, though under another name, in 
several of the provinces. 

Women in Maine were punished by being 
gagged; in Plymouth, Mass., and in East- 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. 93 


hampton, L. I., they had cleft sticks placed 
on their tongues in public; in the latter 
place because the dame said her husband 
“had brought her to a place where there was 
neither gospel nor magistracy.” In Salem 
“one Oliver—his wife’ had a cleft stick 
placed on her tongue for half an hour in pub- 
lic “for reproaching the elders.” It wasa 
high offence to speak “discornfully”’ of the 
elders and magistrates. 

The first volume of the American Htstort- 
cal Record gives a letter said to have been 
written to Governor Endicott, of Massa- 
chusetts, in 1634 by one Thomas Hartley 
from Hungar’s Parish, Virginia. It givesa 
graphic description of a ducking-stool, and an 
account of a ducking in Virginia. I quote 
from it :— 


The day afore yesterday at two of ye clock in 
ye afternoon I saw this punishment given to one 
Betsey wife of John Tucker, who by ye violence 
of her tongue had made his house and ye neigh- 
borhood uncomfortable. She was taken to ye 
pond where I am sojourning by ye officer who 
was joyned by ye magistrate and ye Minister Mr. 
Cotton, who had frequently admonished her and a 
large number of People. They had a machine for 


94. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


ye purpose yt belongs to ye Parish, and which I 
was so told had been so used three times this 
Summer. It is a platform with 4 small rollers or 
wheels and two upright posts between which 
works a Lever by a Rope fastened to its shorter 
or heavier end. At the end of ye longer arm is 
fixed a stool upon which s4 Betsey was fastened 
by cords, her gown tied fast around her feete. 
The Machine was then moved up to ye edge of 
ye pond, ye Rope was slackened by ye officer and 
ye woman was allowed to go down under ye water 
for ye space of half a minute. Betsey had a stout 
stomach, and would not yield until she had 
allowed herself to be ducked 5 severall times. 
At length she cried piteously Let me go Let me 
go, by Gods help Ill sin no more. Then they 
drew back ye machine, untied ye Ropes and let 
her walk home in her wetted clothes a hopefully 
penitent woman. 


I have seen an old chap-book print of a 
ducking-stool with a ‘light huswife of the 
banck-side’”’ in it. It was rigged much like 
an old-fashioned well-sweep, the woman and 
chair occupying the relative place of the 
bucket. The base of the upright support 
was on a low-wheeled platform. 

Bishop Meade, in his Old Churches, Min- 
asters, and Families of Virginia, tells of one 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. 95 


“scolding quean” who was ordered to be 
ducked three times from a vessel lying in 
James River. Places for ducking were pre- 
pared near the Court Houses. The marshal’s 
fee for ducking was only two pounds of to- 
bacco. The ducking-stools were not kept in 
church porches, as in England. In 1634 two 
women were sentenced to be either drawn 
from King’s Creek “from one Cowpen to an- 
other at the starn of a boat or kanew,”’ or to 
present themselves before the congregation, 
and ask forgiveness of each other and God. 
In 1633 it was ordered that a ducking-stool 
be built in every county in Maryland. Ata 
court-baron at St. Clements, the county was 
prosecuted for not having one of these “ pub- 
licsconveniecnees: Siln Rebruary,)\i1 775, a 
ducking-stool was ordered to be placed at the 
confluence of the Ohio and Monongahela 
Rivers, and was doubtless used. As late as 
1819 Georgia women were ducked in the 
Oconee River for scolding. And in 1824, at 
the court of Quarter Sessions, a Philadelphia 
woman was sentenced to be ducked, but the 
punishment was not inflicted, as it was 
deemed obsolete and contrary to the spirit 
of the times. In 1803 the ducking-stool was 


96 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


still used in Liverpool, England, and in 1809 
in Leominster, England. 

One of the last indictments for ducking 
in our own country was that of Mrs. Anne 
Royall in Washington, almost in our own 
day. She was a hated lobbyist, whom Mr. 
Forney called an itinerant virago, and who 
became so abusive to congressmen that she 
was indicted as a common scold before Judge 
William Cranch, and was sentenced by him 
to be ducked in the Potomac. She was, 
however, released with a fine. 

Women curst with a shrewish tongue were 
often punished in Puritan colonies. In 1647 
it was ordered that “common scoulds” be 
punished in Rhode Island by ducking, but 
I find no records of the punishment being 
given. In 1649 several women were pros- 
ecuted in Salem, Mass., for scolding; and 
on May 15, 1672, the General Court of Mas- 
sachusetts ordered that scolds and railers 
should be gagged or “set in a ducking-stool 
and dipped over head and ears three times,” 
but I do not believe that this law was ever 
executed in Massachusetts. Nor was it in 
Maine, though in 1664 a dozen towns were 
fined forty shillings each for having no 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. 97 


“coucking-stool.” Equally severe punish- 
ments were inflicted for other crimes. Kath- 
arine Ainis, of Plymouth, was _ publicly 
whipped on training day, and ordered to 
wear a large B cut in red cloth ‘sewed to 
her vper garment.”’ In 1637 Dorothy Talbye, 
a Salem dame, for beating her husband was 
ordered to be bound and chained to a post. 
At a later date she was whipped, and then 
was hanged for killing her child, who bore 
the strange name of Difficulty. No one but 
a Puritan magistrate could doubt, from Win- 
throp’s account of her, that she was insane. 
Another ‘audatious” Plymouth shrew, for 
various “ vncivill carriages” to her husband, 
was sentenced to the pillory ; and if half that 
was told of her was true, she richly deserved 
her sentence; but, as she displayed “ greate 
pensiveness and sorrow” before the simple 
Pilgrim magistrates, she escaped temporarily, 
to be punished at a later date fora greater : 
sin. The magistrates firmly asserted in 
court and out that “meekness is ye chojsest 
orniment for a woman.” 

Joane Andrews sold in York, Maine, in 
1676, two stones ina firkin of butter. For 
this cheatery she “stood in towne meeting 


98 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


at York and at towne meeting at Kittery 
till 2 hours bee expended, with her offense 
written upon a paper in capitall letters on 
her forehead.” The court record of one 
woman delinquent in Plymouth, in 1683, is 
grimly comic. It seems that Mary Rosse 
exercised what was called by the “painful” 
court chronicler in a triumph of orthographi- 
cal and nomenclatory art, an “ inthewsias- 
tickall power’ over one Shingleterry, a mar- 
ried man, who cringingly pleaded, as did our 
first father Adam, that “hee must doo what 
shee bade him” — or, in modern phrase, that 
she hypnotized him. Mary Rosse and her 
uncanny power did not receive the considera- 
tion that similar witches and works do now- 
adays. She was publicly whipped and sent 
home’ to her mother, while her hypnotic sub- 
ject was also whipped, and I presume sent 
home to his wife. 

It should be noted that in Virginia, under 
the laws proclaimed by Argall, women were 
in some ways tenderly regarded. They were 
not punished for absenting themselves from 
church on Sundays or holidays; while men 
for one offence of this nature had “to lie 
neck and heels that night, and be a slave to 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. 99 


the colony for the following week; for the 
second offence to be a slave for a month; for 
the third, for a year and a day.” 

It is curious to see how long and how con- 
stantly, in spite of their severe and manifold 
laws, the pious settlers could suffer through 
certain ill company which they had been un- 
lucky enough to bring over, provided the 
said offenders did not violate the religious 
rules of the community. We might note as 
ignoble instances, Will Fancie and his wife, 
of New Haven, and John Dandy and his 
wife, of Maryland. Their names constantly 
appear for years in the court records, as 
offenders and as the cause of offences. John 
Dandy at one time swore in court that all 
his “controversies from the beginning of 
the World to this day” had ceased; but it 
would have been more to the purpose had he 
also added till the end of the world, for his 
violence soon brought him to the gallows, 
Will Fancie’s wife seemed capable of any 
and every offence, from “stealing pinnes’”’ 
to stealing the affections of nearly every man 
with whom she chanced to be thrown; and 
the magistrates of New Haven were evi- 
dently sorely puzzled how to deal with her. 


100 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


I have noted in the court or church rec- 
ords of all witch-ridden communities, save in 
the records of poor crazed and bewildered 
Salem, where the flame was blown into a 
roaring blaze by “the foolish breath of Cot- 
ton Mather,” that there always appear on the 
pages some plain hints, and usually some 
definite statements, which account for the 
accusation of witchcraft against individuals. 
And these hints indicate a hated personality 
of the witch. To illustrate my meaning, let 
me take the the case of Goody Garlick, of 
Easthampton, Long Island. In reading the 
early court records of that town, I was im- 
pressed with the constant meddlesome inter- 
ference of this woman in all social and town 
matters. Every page reeked of Garlick. She 
was an ever-ready witness in trespass, bound- 
ary, and slander suits, for she was apparently 
on hand everywhere. She was present when 
a young man made ugly faces at the wife of 
Lion Gardiner, because she scolded him for 
eating up her ‘ pomkin porage;” and she 
was listening when Mistress Edwards was 
called a base liar, because she asserted she 
had in her chest a new petticoat that she had 
brought from England some years before, and 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. IOI 


had never worn (and of course no woman 
could believe that). In short, Goody Gar- 
lick was a constant tale-bearer and barrator. 
Hence it was not surprising to me to find, 
when Mistress Arthur Howell, Lion Gar- 
diner’s daughter, fell suddenly and strangely 
ill, and cried out that ‘a double-tongued 
naughty woman was tormenting her,a woman 
who had a black cat,”’ that the wise neighbors 
at once remembered that Goody Garlick was 
double-tongued and naughty, and had a black 
cat. She was speedily indicted for witch- 
craft, and the gravamen appeared to be her 
constant tale-bearing. 

In 1706 a Virginian goody with a prettier 
name, Grace Sherwood, was tried as a witch ; 
and with all the superstition of the day, and 
the added superstition of the surrounding 
and rapidly increasing negro population, there 
were but three Virginian witch-trials. Grace 
Sherwood’s name was also of constant recur- 
rence in court annals, from the year 1690, on 
the court records of Princess Anne County, 
especially in slander cases. She was exam- 
ined, after her indictment, for “witches 
marks” by a jury of twelve matrons, each 
of whom testified that Grace was ‘‘not like 


102 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


” 


yur.’ The magistrates seem to have been 
somewhat disconcerted at the convicting 
testimony of this jury, and at a loss how to 
proceed, but the witch asserted her willing- 
ness to endure trial by water. A day was 
set for the ducking, but it rained, and 
the tenderly considerate court thought the 
weather unfavorable for the trial on account 
of the danger to Grace’s health, and post- 
poned the ducking. At last, on a sunny 
July day, when she could not take cold, the 
witch was securely pinioned and thrown into 
Lyn Haven Bay, with directions from the 
magistrates to “but her into the debth.” 
Into the “debth” of the water she should 
have contentedly and innocently sunk, but 
“contrary to the Judgments of all the spec- 
tators”’ she persisted in swimming, and at 
last was fished out and again examined to see 
whether the “ witches marks ” 
off. One of the examiners was certainly far 


were washed 


from being prepossessed in Grace’s favor. 
She was a dame who eight years before had 
testified that “‘ Grace came to her one night, 
and rid her, and went out of the key hole or 
crack in the door like a black cat.’’ Grace 
Sherwood was not executed, and she did not 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. 103 


die of the ducking, but it cooled her quarrel- 
some “temper, “She wlivedr till¥1740, 0. The 
point where she was butted into the depth is 
to this day called Witches Duck. 

Grace Sherwood was not the only poor 
soul that passed through the “ water-test”’ 
or “the fleeting on the water’”’ for witch- 
craft. In September, 1692, in Fairfield, 
Conn., the accused witches ‘Mercy Disbur- 
row and Elizabeth Clauson were bound hand 
and foot and put into the water, and they 
swam like cork, and one labored to press 
them into the water, and they buoyed up 
like cork.”’ Many cruel scenes were enacted 
in Connecticut, none more so than the per- 
sistent inquisition of Goodwife Knapp after 
she was condemned to death for witchcraft. 
She was constantly tormented by her old 
friends and neighbors to confess and to 
accuse one Goody Staples as an accomplice ; 
but the poor woman repeated that she must 
not wrong any one nor say anything untrue. 
She added : — 


The truth is you would have me say that good- 
wife Staples is a witch but I have sins enough to 
answer for already, I know nothing against good- 
wife Staples and I hope she is an honest woman. 


104, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


You know not what I know. I have been fished 
withall in private more than you are aware of. I 
apprehend that goodwife Staples hath done me 
wrong in her testimony but I must not return 
evil for evil. 


Being still urged and threatened with eter- 
nal damnation, she finally burst into bitter 
tears, and begged her persecutors to cease, 
saying in words that must have lingered long 
in their memory, and that still make the 
heart ache, ‘‘ Never, never was poor creature 
tempted as I am tempted! oh pray! pray for 
me!” 

The last scene in this New England 
tragedy was when her poor dead body was 
cut down from the gallows, and laid upon the 
green turf beside her grave; and her old 
neighbors, excited with superstition, and 
blinded to all sense of shame or unwoman- 
liness, crowded about examining eagerly for 
“witch signs;’’ while in the foreground 
Goodwife Staples, whose lying words had 
hanged her friend, kneeled by the poor in- 
sulted corpse, weeping and wringing her 
hands, calling upon God, and asserting the 
innocence of the murdered woman. 

It is a curious fact that, in an era which 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. I05 


did not much encourage the public speech 
or public appearance of women, they should 
have served on juries; yet they occasionally 
did, not only in witchcraft cases such as 
Grace Sherwood’s and Alice Cartwright’s, 
— another Virginia witch,— but in murder 
cases, as in Kent County, Maryland; these 
juries were not usually to render the final 
decision, but to decide upon certain points, 
generally purely personal, by which their 
wise husbands could afterwards be guided. 
I don’t know that these female juries shine 
as exemplars of wisdom and judgment. In 
1693 a jury of twelve women in Newbury, 
Mass., rendered this decision, which certainly 
must have been final : — 


Wee judge according to our best lights and 
contients that the Death of said Elizabeth was 
not by any violens or wrong done to her by any 
parson or thing but by some soden stoping of hir 
Breath. 

In Revolutionary days a jury of “twelve 
discreet matrons”’ of Worcester, Mass., gave 
a decision in the case of Bathsheba Spooner, 
which was found after her execution to be a 
wrong judgment. She was the last woman 
hanged by law in Massachusetts, and her 


106 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


cruel fate may have proved a vicarious suf- 
fering and means of exemption for other 
women criminals. 


Women, as well as men, when suspected 
murderers, had to go through the cruel and 
shocking “blood-ordeal.” This belief, sup- 
ported by the assertions of that learned fool, 
King James, in his Demonologie, lingered 
long in the minds of many, —indeed does 
to this day in poor superstitious folk. The 
royal author says :— 


In a secret murther, if the dead carkas be at 
any time thereafter handled by the murtherer, it 
will gush out of blood. 


Sometimes a great number of persons were 
made to touch in turn the dead body, hoping 
thus to discover the murderer. 

It has been said that few women were 
taught to write in colonial days, and that 
those few wrote so ill their letters could 
scarce be read. I have seen a goodly num- 
ber of letters written by women in those 
times, and the handwriting is comparatively 
as good as that of their husbands and bro- 
thers. Margaret Winthrop wrote with pre- 
cision and elegance. A letter of Anne 


DOUBLE-TONGUED WOMEN. 107 


Winthrop’s dated 1737 is clear, regular, and 
beautiful. Mary Higginson’s writing is fair, 
and Elizabeth Cushing’s irregular and uncer- 
tain, as if of infrequent occurrence. Eliza- 
beth Corwin’s is clear, though irregular ; 
Mehitable Parkman’s more careless and 
wavering ; all are easily read. But the most 
beautiful old writing I have ever seen, — 
elegant, regular, wonderfully clear and well- 
proportioned, was written by the hand of 
a woman,—da criminal, a condemned mur- 
derer, Elizabeth Attwood, who was executed 
in 1720 for the murder of her infant child. 
The letter was written from “Ipswitch Gole 
in Bonds”’ to Cotton Mather, and is a most 
pathetic and intelligent appeal for his inter- 
ference to save her life. The beauty and 
simplicity of her language, the force and 
directness of her expressions, her firm denial 
of the crime, her calm religious assurance, 
are most touching to read, even after the 
lapse of centuries, and make one wonder that 
any one — magistrate or priest, — even Cot- 
ton Mather—could doubt her innocence. 
But she was hanged before a vast concourse 
of eager people, and was declared most im- 
penitent and bold in her denial of her guilt; 


108 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


and it was brought up against her, as a most 
hardened brazenry, that to cheat the hang- 
man (who always took as handsel of his vic- 
tim the garments in which she was “turned 
off’’), she appeared in her worst attire, and 
announced that he would get but a sorry 
suit from her. I do not know the 
estate in life of Elizabeth Att- 
wood, but it could not have 
been mean, for her let- 
ter shows great 
refinement. 


CHAPTER IV. 
BOSTON NEIGHBORS. 


CCOUNTS of isolated figures are often 
more interesting than chapters of gen- 
eral history, and biographies more attractive 
than state records, because more petty details 
of vivid human interest can be learned; so, 
in order to present clearly a picture of the 
social life of women in the earliest days of 
New England, I give a description of a group 
of women, contiguous in residence, and con- 
temporary in life, rather than an account of 
some special dame of dignity or note; and I 
call this group Boston Neighbors, 

If the setting of this picture would add to 
its interest, it is easy to portray the little 
settlement. The peninsula, but half as large 
as the Boston of to-day, was fringed with sea- 
marshes, and was crowned with three conical 
hills, surmounted respectively with the wind- 
mill, the fort, and the beacon. The cham- 
paign was simply an extended pasture with 


I10 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


few trees, but fine springs of water. Wind- 
ing footpaths — most interesting of roadways 
—connected the detached dwellings, and 
their irregular outlines still show in our Bos- 
ton streets. The thatched clay houses were 
being replaced by better and more substan- 
tial dwellings. William Coddington had built 
the first brick house. 

On the main street, now Washington 
Street, just east of where the Old South 
Church now stands, lived the dame of high- 
est degree, and perhaps the most beautiful 
personality, in this little group — Margaret 
Tyndal Winthrop, the “loving faythfull yoke- 
fellow” of Governor John Winthrop. She 
was his third wife, though he was but thirty 
when he married her. He had been first 
married when but seventeen years old. He 
writes that he was conceived by his parents 
to be at that age a man in stature and under- 
standing. This wife brought to him, and left 
to him, ‘‘a large portion of outward estate,” 
and four little children. Of the second wife 
he writes, “‘ For her carriage towards myselfe, 
it was so amiable and observant as I am not 
able to expresse; it had only this inconven- 
ience, that it made me delight in hir too much 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. III 


to enjoy hir long,” — and she lived with him 
but a year and a day. He married Margaret 
in 1618, and when she had borne five chil- 
dren, he left her in 1630, and sailed to New 
England. She came also the following year, 
and was received “with great joy” and a 
day of Thanksgiving. For the remaining 
sixteen years of her life she had but brief 
separations from her husband, and she died, 
as he wrote, ‘especially beloved of all the 
country.” Her gentle love-letters to her 
husband, and the simple testimony of con- 
temporary letters of her relatives and friends, 
show her to have been truly “‘a sweet gra- 
cious woman ”’ who endured the hardships of 
her new home, the Governor’s loss of fortune, 
and his trying political experiences, with 
unvarying patience and “singular virtue, 
modesty and piety.” 

There lived at this time in Boston a woman 
who must have been well known personally 
by Madam Winthrop, for she was a near 
neighbor, living within stone’s throw of the 
Governor's house, on the spot where now 
stands “The Old Corner Bookstore.” ‘This 
woman was Anne Hutchinson. She came 
with Rev. John Cotton from Boston, Eng- 


II12 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


land, to Boston, New England, well respected 
and well beloved. She went an outcast, 
hated and feared by many she left behind 
her in Boston. For years her name was on 
every tongue, while she was under repeated 
trials and examinations for heresy. In the 
controversy over her and her doctrines, mag- 
istrates, ministers, women, soldiers, the com- 
mon multitude of Boston, all took part, and 
took sides; through the pursuance of the 
controversy the government of the colony 
was changed. Her special offences against 
doctrines were those two antiquated “ here- 
sies,” Antinomianism and Familism, which I 
could hardly define if I would. According 
to Winthrop they were “those two danger- 
ous errors that the person of the Holy Ghost 
dwells in a justified person, and that no 
sanctification can help to evidence to us our 
justification.” Her special offences against 
social and religious routines were thus related 
by Cotton Mather : — 

At the meetings of the women which used to 
be called gossippings it was her manner to carry 
on very pious discourses and so put the neighbor- 
hood upon examining their spiritual estates by 
telling them how far a person might go in “ trou- 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. IIl3 


ble of mind,” and being restrained from very 
many evils and constrained into very many duties, 
by none but a legal work upon their souls with- 
out ever coming to a saving union with the Lord 
Jesus Christ, that many of them were convinced 
of a very great defect in the settlement of their 
everlasting peace, and acquainted more with the 
“Spirit of the Gospel” than ever they were 
before. This mighty show and noise of devotion 
made the reputation of a non-such among the 
people until at length under pretence of that 
warrant “‘ that the elder women are to teach the 
younger” she set up weekly meetings at her 
house whereto three score or four score people 
would report. . . 

It was not long before it was found out that 
most of the errors then crawling like vipers were 
hatch’d at these meetings. 


So disturbed was the synod of ministers 
which was held early in the controversy, that 
this question was at once resolved : — 


That though women might meet (some few to- 
gether) to pray and edify one another, yet such a 
set assembly (as was then the practice in Boston) 
where sixty or more did meet every week, and 
one woman (in a prophetical way by resolving 
questions of doctrines and expounding scripture) 


I14, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


took upon her the whole exercise, was agreed to 
be disorderly and without rule. 

As I read the meagre evidences of her 
belief, I see that Anne Hutchinson had a 
high supernatural faith which, though mysti- 
cal at its roots, aimed at being practical in 
its fruits ; but she was critical, tactless, and 
over-inquisitive, and doubtless censorious, 
and worst of all she “vented her revela- 
tions,” which made her seem to many of the 
Puritans the very essence of fanaticism; so 
she was promptly placed on trial for heresy 
for ‘twenty-nine cursed opinions and falling 
into fearful lying, with an impudent Forehead 
in the public assembly.’”’ The end of it all 
in that theocracy could not be uncertain. 
One woman, even though her followers in- 
cluded Governor Sir Henry Vane, and a 
hundred of the most influential men of the 
community, could not stop the powerful ma- 
chinery of the Puritan Church and Common- 
wealth, the calm, well-planned opposition of 
Winthrop; and after a succession of mortify- 
ing indignities, and unlimited petty hectoring 
and annoying, she was banished. “The court 
put an end to her vapouring talk, and finding 
no hope of reclaiming her from her scandal- 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. I1T5 


ous, dangerous, and enchanting extravagan- 
cies, ordered her out of the colony.” 

In reading of her life, her trials, it is dif- 
ficult to judge whether —to borrow Howel’s 
expression — the crosier or the distaff were 
most to blame in all this sad business; 
the preachers certainly took an over-active 
part. 

Of the personal appearance of this “ erro- 
neous gentlewoman”’ we know nothing. I 
do not think, in spite of the presumptive evi- 
dence of the marked personal beauty of her 
descendants, that she was a handsome woman, 
else it would certainly be so stated. The 
author of the Short Story of the Rise Reigne 
and Ruine of the Antinomians, Familists, and 
Libertines that infected the Churches of New 
England calls her ‘a woman of a haughty 
and fierce carriage, of a nimble wit and active 
spirit, and a very voluble tongue, more bold 
than a man, though in understanding and 
judgment inferior to many women.’ He 
also termed her “the American Jezebel,’ 
and so did the traveller Josselyn in his Ac- 
count of Two Voyages to New England; 
while Minister Hooker styled her “a 
wretched woman.” Johnson, in his Wonder- 


116. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Working Providence, calls her the “ master- 
piece of woman's wit.” Governor Winthrop 
said she was “a woman of ready wit and bold 
spirit.’’ Cotton Mather called her a virago, 
cunning, canting, and proud, but he did not 
know her. 

We to-day can scarcely comprehend what 
these ‘‘double weekly lectures” must have 
been to these Boston women, with their ex- 
treme conscientiousness, their sombre reli- 
gious belief, and their timid superstition, in 
their hard and perhaps homesick life. The 
materials for mental occupation and excite- 
ment were meagre; hence the spiritual 
excitement caused by Anne Hutchinson’s 
prophesyings must have been to them a fas- 
cinating religious dissipation. Many were 
exalted with a supreme assurance of their 
salvation. Others, bewildered with spiritual 
doubts, fell into deep gloom and depression ; 
and one woman in utter desperation at- 
tempted to commit a crime, and found 
therein a natural source of relief, saying 
“now she was sure she should be damned.” 
Into all this doubt and depression the wives 
— to use Cotton Mather’s phrase — “ hooked 
in their husbands.” So, perhaps, after all it 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. I17 


was well to banish the fomenter of all these 
troubles and bewilderments. 

Still, I wonder whether Anne Hutchin- 
son’s old neighbors and gossips did not 
regret these interesting meetings, these ex- 
citing prophesyings, when they were sternly 
ended. I hope they grieved for her when 
they heard of her cruel death by Indian mas- 
sacre; and I know they remembered her un- 
stinted, kindly offices in time of sickness and 
affliction; and I trust they honored “her 
ever sober and profitable carriage,” and I 
suspect some of them in their inmost hearts 
deplored the Protestant Inquisition of their 
fathers and husbands, that caused her exile 
and consequent murder by the savages. 

Samuel Johnson says, “As the faculty of 
writing is chiefly a masculine endowment, 
the reproach of making the world miserable 
has always been thrown upon women.” As 
the faculty of literary composition at that 
day was wholly a masculine endowment, we 
shall never know what the Puritan women 
really thought of Anne WHutchinson, and 
whether they threw upon her any reproach. 

We gain a slight knowledge of what Mar- 
garet Winthrop thought of all this religious 


118 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


ecstasy, this bitter quarrelling, from a letter 
written by her, and dated ‘ Sad-Boston.” 
She says :— 


Sad thoughts possess my sperits, and I cannot 
repulce them ; wch makes me unfit for anythinge, 
wondringe what the Lord meanes by all these 
troubles among us. Shure I am that all shall 
worke to the best to them that love God, or rather 
are loved of hime, I know he will bring light out 
of obcurity and make his rituusnesse shine forth 
as clere as the nounday; yet I find in myself 
an aferce spiret, and a tremblinge hart, not so 
willing to submit to the will of God as I desyre. 
There is a time to plant, and a time to pull up 
that which is planted, which I could desyre might 
not be yet. 


And so it would seem to us to-day that it 
was indeed a doubtful beginning to tear up 
with such violence even flaunting weeds, lest 
the tender and scattered grain, whose roots 
scarce held in the unfamiliar soil, might also 
be uprooted and wither and die. But the 
colony endured these trials, and flourished, 
as it did other trials, and still prospered. 

Though written expression of their feel- 
ings is lacking, we know that the Boston 
neighbors gave to Anne Hutchinson ‘that 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. II9g 


sincerest flattery —imitation. Perhaps her 
fellow-prophets should not be called imita- 
tors, but simply kindred religious spirits. 
The elements of society in colonial Boston 
were such as plentifully to produce and stimu- 
late “disordered and heady persons.” 

Among them was Mary Dyer, thus de- 
scribed by Winthrop : — 

The wife of William Dyer, a milliner in the 
New Exchange, a very proper and fair woman, 
notoriously infected with Mrs Hutchinsons er- 
rors, and very censorious and troublesome. She 
being of a very proud spirit and much addicted 
to revelations. 

Another author called her ‘a comely 
grave woman, of a goodly personage, and of 
good report.” 

Some of these Boston neighbors lived to 
see two sad sights. Fair comely Mary Dyer, 
after a decade of unmolested and peaceful 
revelations in Rhode Island, returned to her 
early home, and persistently preached to her 
old friends, and then walked through Boston 
streets hand in hand with two young Quaker 
friends, condemned felons, to the sound of 
the drums of the train band, glorying in her 
companionship ; and then she was set on a 


120 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


gallows with a halter round her neck, while 
her two friends were hanged before her 
eyes; this was witnessed by such a multi- 
tude that the drawbridge broke under the 
weight of the returning North-enders. And 
six months later this very proper and fair 
woman herself was hanged in Boston, to rid 
the commonwealth of an intolerable plague. 

A letter still exists, written by William 
Dyer to the Boston magistrates to ‘ beg 
affectionately the life of my deare wife.” It 
is most touching, most heart-rending; it 
ends thus, ‘“ Yourselves have been husbands 
of wife or wives, and so am I, yea to one 
most dearlye beloved. Oh do not you de- 
prive me of her, but I pray you give me her 
out againe. Pityeme—TI beg it with teares,”’ 

The tears still stain this poor sorrowful, 
appealing letter,— a missive so gentle, so 
timid, so full of affection, of grief, that I 
cannot now read it unmoved and I do indeed 
‘“pitye” thee. William Dyer’s tears have 
not been the only ones to fall on his beauti- 
ful, tender words. 

Another interesting neighbor living where 
Washington Street crossed Brattle Street was 
the bride, young Madam Bellingham, whose 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. I2I 


marriage had caused such a scandal in good 
society in Boston. Winthrop’s account of 
this affair is the best that could be given : — 


The governour Mr Bellingham was married. 
The young gentlewoman was ready to be con- 
tracted to a friend of his who lodged in his 
house, and by his consent had proceeded so far 
with her, when on a sudden the governour treated 
with her, and obtained her for himself. He 
excused it by the strength of his affection, and 
that she was not absolutely promised to the 
other gentleman. Two errors more he com- 
mitted upon it. 4s. That he would not have his 
contract published where he dwelt, contrary to 
the order of court. 2. That he married himself 
contrary to the constant practice of the country. 
The great inquest prosecuted him for breach of 
the order of the court, and at the court following 
in the fourth month, the secretary called him to 
answer the prosecution. But he not going off 
the bench, as the manner was, and but few of the 
magistrates present, he put it off to another time, 
intending to speak with him privately, and with 
the rest of the magistrates about the case, and 
accordingly he told him the reason why he did 
not proceed, viz., that being unwilling to com- 
mand him publicly to go off the bench, and yet 
not thinking it fit he should sit as a judge, when 


122 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


he was by law to answer as an offender. This 
he took ill, and said he would not go off the 
bench except he were commanded. 


I think the young English girl, Penelope 
Pelham, must have been sadly bewildered 
by the strange abrupt ways of the new land, 
by her dictatorial elderly lover, by his auto- 
cratic and singular marriage with her, by 
the attempted action of the government 
against him. She had a long life thereafter, 
for he lived to be eighty years old, and she 
survived him thirty years. 

A very querulous and turbulent neighbor 
who lived on Milk Street was Mistress Ann 
Hibbins, the wife of one of Boston’s honored 
citizens. Her husband had been unsuccess- 
ful in business matters, and this “so dis- 
composed his wife’s spirit that she was 
scarce ever well settled in her mind after- 
wards,” and at last was put out of the church 
and by her strange carriage gave occasion 
to her superstitious neighbors to charge her 
with being a witch. She was brought to 
trial for witchcraft, convicted, sentenced, 
and hung upon a Thursday lecture day, in 
spite of her social position, and the fact that 
her brother was Governor Bellingham. She 


BOSTON NAIGHBORS. 123 


had other friends, high in authority, as her 
will shows, and she had the belongings of a 
colonial dame, “a diamond ring, a taffety 
cloke, silk gown and kirtle, pinck-colored pet- 
ticoat, and money in the deske.’”’ Minister 
Beach wrote to Increase Mather in 1684: — 


I have sometimes told you your famous Mr 
Norton once said at his own table before Mr 
Wilson, Elder Penn and myself and wife who 
had the honour to be his guests — that the wife 
of one of your magistrates, I remember, was 
hanged for a witch only for having more wit 
than her neighbors. It was his very expression ; 
she having as he explained it, unhappily guessed 
that two of her prosecutors, whom she saw talk- 
ing in the street were talking about her — which 
cost her her life, notwithstanding all he could do 
to the contrary. 


It would naturally be thought, from the 
affectionate and intense devotion of the 
colonists to the school which had just be- 
come “ Harvard-Colledge,” that Mr. Nathan- 
iel Eaton, the head-master of the freshly 
established seat of learning, would be a cit1- 
zen of much esteem, and his wife a dame of 
as dignified carriage and honored station as 
any of her Boston and Cambridge neighbors. 


124, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Let us see whether such was the case. Mr. 
Eaton had had much encouragement to con- 
tinue at the head of the college for life; he 
had been offered a tract of five hundred 
acres of land, and liberal support had been 
offered by the government, and he “had 
many scholars, the sons of gentlemen and 
of others of best note in the country.” Yet 
when he fell out with one of his ushers on 
very slight occasion, he struck the usher 
and caused two more to hold the poor fellow 
while he beat him two hundred ‘stripes with 
a heavy walnut cudgel; and when poor Usher 
Briscoe fell a-praying, in fear of dying, Mas- 
ter Eaton beat him further for taking the 
name of God in vain. When all this cruelty 
was laid to him in open court “his answers 
were full of pride and disdain,” and he said 
he had this unvarying rule, “that he would 
not give over correcting till he had subdued 
the party to his will.’ And upon being 
questioned about other malpractices, espe- 
cially the ill and scant diet provided by him 
for the students, though good board had 
been paid by them, he, Adam-like, “ put it 
off to his wife.” 

Her confession of her connection with the 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. 125 


matter is still in existence, and proves her 
accomplishments as a generous and tidy 
housewife about equal to his dignity and 
lenity as head of the college. It is a most 
curious and minute document, showing 
what her duties were, and the way she per- 
formed them, and also giving an interesting 
glimpse of college life in those days. It 
reads thus : — 


For their breakfast that it was not so well 
ordered, the flower not so fine as it might, nor so 
well boiled or stirred at all times that it was so, 
it was my sin of neglect, and want of care that 
ought to have been in one that the Lord had in- 
trusted with such a work. 

Concerning their beef, that was allowed them, 
as they affirm, which I confess had been my duty 
to have seen they should have had it, and con- 
tinued to have had it, because it was my hus- 
bands command ; but truly I must confess, to my 
shame, I cannot remember that ever they had it 
nor that ever it was taken from them. 

And that they had not so good or so much 
provision in my husbands absence as presence, I 
conceive it was, because he would call sometimes 
for butter or cheese when I conceived there was 
no need of it; yet for as much as the scholars 
did otherways apprehend, I desire to see the 


126 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


evil that was in the carriage of that as in the 
other and to take shame to myself for it. 

And that they sent down for more, when they 
had not enough, and the maid should answer, if 
they had not, they should not. I must confess 
that I have denied them cheese, when they have 
sent for it, and it have been in the house, for 
which I shall humbly beg pardon to them, and 
own the shame, and confess my sin. 

And for such provoking words which my ser- 
vants have given, I cannot own them, but am 
sorry any such should be given in my,house. 

And for bad fish, they had it brought to table, 
I am sorry there was that cause of offence given ; 
I acknowledge my sin in it....IJI am much 
ashamed it should be in the family, and not pre- 
vented by myself or my servants, and I humbly 
acknowledge my negligence in it. 

And that they made their beds at any time, 
were my straits never so great, I am sorry they 
were ever put to it. 

For the Moor, his lying in Sam Hough’s sheet 
and pillow-bier, it hath a truth in it; he did so 
at one time and it gave Sam Hough just cause 
for offence ; and that it was not prevented by my 
care and watchfulness I desire to take the shame 
and the sorrow for it. 

And that they eat the Moor’s crusts, and the 
swine and they had share and share alike; and 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. 127 


the Moor to have beer, and they denied it, and if 
they had not enough, for my maid to answer they 
should not, I am an utter stranger to these things, 
and know not the least foot-steps for them so to 
charge me; and if my servants were guilty of 
such miscarriages, had the boarders complained 
of it unto myself, I should have thought it my 
sin, if I had not sharply removed my servants 
and endeavored reform. 

And for bread made of sour heated meal, 
though I know of but once that it was so since I 
kept house, yet John Wilson affirms that it was 
twice; and I am truly sorry that any of it was 
spent amongst them. 

For beer and bread that it was denied them by 
me betwixt meals, truly I do not remember, that 
ever I did deny it unto them; and John Wilson 
will affirm that, generally, the bread and beer 
was free for the boarders to go to. 

And that money was demanded of them for 
washing the linen, tis true that it was propounded 
to them but never imposed upon them, 

And for their pudding being given the last 
day of the week without butter or suet, and 
that I said, it was a miln of Manchester in old 
England, its true that I did say so, and am sorry, 
that had any cause of offence given them by 
having it so. 

And for their wanting beer betwixt brewings, a 


128 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


week or half a week together, I am sorry that it 
was so at any time, and should tremble to have 
it so, were it in my hands to do again. 

And whereas they say, that sometimes they 
have sent down for more meat and it hath been 
denied, when it have been in the house, I must 
confess, to my shame, that I have denied them 
oft, when they have sent for it, and it have been 
in the house. 


Truly a pitiful tale of shiftless stinginess, 
of attempted extortion, of ill-regulated ser- 
vice, and of overworked housewifery as well. 

The Reverend Mr. Eaton did not escape 
punishment for his sins. After much obsti- 
nacy he “made a very solid, wise, eloquent, 
and serious confession, condemning himself 
in all particulars.” The court, with Win- 
throp at the head, bore lightly upon him after 
this confession, and yet when sentence of ban- 
ishment from the college, and restriction from 
teaching within the jurisdiction, was passed, 
and he was fined 430, he did not give glory 
to God as was expected, but turned away 
with a discontented look. Then the church 
took the matter up to discipline him, and the 
schoolmaster promptly ran away, leaving 
debts of a thousand pounds. 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. I29 


The last scene in the life of Mrs. Eaton 
may be given in Winthrop’s words : — 

Mr. Nathaniel Eaton being come to Virginia, 
took upon him to be a minister there, but was 
given up to extreme pride and sensuality, being 
usually drunken, as the custom is there. He sent 
for his wife and children. Her friends here per- 
suaded her to stay awhile, but she went, notwith- 
standing, and the vessel was never heard of 
after. 


So you see she had friends and neighbors 
who wished her to remain in New England 
with them, and who may have loved her in 
spite of the sour bread, and scant beer, and 
bad fish, that she doled out to the college 
students. 

There was one visitor who flashed upon 
this chill New England scene like a brilliant 
tropical bird; with all the subtle fascination 
of a foreigner ; speaking a strange language ; 
believing a wicked Popish faith; and en- 
glamoured with the romance of past adven- 
ture, with the excitement of incipient war. 
This was Madam La Tour, the young wife 
of one of the rival French governors of Aca- 
dia. The relations of Massachusetts, of Bos- 
ton town, to the quarrels of these two ambi- 


130 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


tious and unscrupulous Frenchmen, La Tour 
and D’Aulnay, form one of the most curious 
and interesting episodes in the history of the 
colony. 

Many unpleasant and harassing complica- 
tions and annoyances had arisen between the 
French and English colonists, in the more 
northern plantations, when, in 1643, in June, 
Governor La Tour surprised his English 
neighbors by landing in Boston ‘‘ with two 
friars and two women sent to wait upon La 
Tour His Lady’ —and strange sights they 
truly were in Boston. He came ashore at 
Governor Winthrop’s garden (now Fort Win- 
throp), and his arrival was heralded by a 
frightened woman, one Mrs. Gibbons, who 
chanced to be sailing in the bay, and saw the 
approach of the French boat, and hastened 
to warn the Governor. Perhaps Mrs. Gib- 
bons had a premonitory warning of the 
twenty-five hundred pounds her husband 
was to lose at a later date through his con- 
fidence in the persuasive Frenchman. Gov- 
ernor and Madam Winthrop and their two 
sons and a daughter-in-law were sitting in 
the Governor’s garden in the summer sun- 
shine, and though thoroughly surprised, they 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. 131 


greeted the unexpected visitor, La Tour, 
with civilities, and escorted him to Boston 
town, not without some internal tremors and 
much deep mortification of the Governor 
when he thought of the weakness and pov- 
erty of Boston, with Castle Island deserted, 
as was plainly shown to the foreigner by the 
lack of any response to his salute of guns; 
and the inference was quick to come that the 
Frenchman “might have spoiled Boston.” 
But La Tour’s visit was most friendly ; all 
he wished was free mercature and the codper- 
ation of the English colony. And he desired 
to land his men for a short time, that they 
might refresh themselves after their long 
voyage; “so they landed in small companies 
that our women might not be affrighted with 
them.” And the Governor dined the French 
officers, and the New England warriors of 
the train-band entertained the visiting Gallic 
soldiers, and they exercised and trained be- 
fore each other, all in true Boston hospitable 
fashion, as is the custom to this day. And 
the Governor bourgeoned with as much of an 
air of importance as possible, “being regu- 
larly attended with a good guard of halberts 
and musketeers ;’’ and thus tried to live down 


132 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


the undignified heralding of a fellow-governor 
by a badly scared woman neighbor. And the 
cunning Frenchman, as did another of his 
race, ‘with sugared words sought to addulce 
all matters.” He flattered the sober Boston 
magistrates, and praised everything about 
the Boston army, and ‘‘showed much admira- 
tion professing he could not have believed it, 
if he had not seen it.” And the foreigners 
were so well treated (though Winthrop was 
blamed afterwards by stern Endicott and the 
Rome-hating ministers) that they came again 
the following summer, when La Tour asked 
material assistance. He received it, and he 
lingered till autumn, and barely eight days 
after he left, Madam La Tour landed in Bos- 
ton from London; and strange and sad must 
the little town have seemed to her after her 
past life. She was in a state of much anger, 
and at once brought suit against the master 
of the ship for not carrying her and her be- 
longings to the promised harbor in Acadia; 
for trading on the way until she nearly fell 
into the hands of her husband's enemy, 
D’Aulnay. The merchants of Charlestown 
and Salem sided with the ship’s captain. 
The solid men of Boston gallantly upheld 


BOSTON NEIGHBORS. 183 


and assisted the lady. The jury awarded her 
two thousand pounds damages, and bitterly 
did one of the jury —Governor Winthrop’s 
son —suffer for it, for he was afterwards 
arrested in London, and had to give bond 
for four thousand pounds to answer to a suit 
in the Court of Admiralty about the Boston 
decision in favor of the Lady La Tour. 

In the mean time ambassadors from the 
rival Acadian governor, D’Aulnay, arrived 
in New England, and were treated with 
much honor and consideration by the diplo- 
matic Boston magistrates. I think I can 
read between the lines that the Bostonians 
really liked La Tour, who must have had 
much personal attraction and magnetism ; 
but they feared D’Aulnay, who had brought 
against the Massachusetts government a 
claim of eight thousand pounds damages. 
The Governor sent to D’Aulnay a propiti- 
atory gift of “a very fair new sedan chair (of 
no use to us), and I should fancy scarcely 
of much more use in Acadia; and which 
proved avery cheap way of staving off pay- 
ing the eight thousand pounds. 

Madam La Tour sailed off at last with 
three laden ships to her husband, in spite 


134. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES., 


of D’Aulnay’s dictum that “she was known 
to be the cause of all her husband’s con- 
tempt and rebellion, and therefore they 
could not: let*her goto him.” ‘Lay Tours 
stronghold was captured shortly after “by 
assault and scalado”’ when he was absent, 
and his jewels, plate, and furniture to the 
amount of ten thousand pounds were seized, 
and his wife too; and she died in three 
weeks, of a broken heart, and “her little 
child and gentlewomen were sent to France.” 

I think these Boston neighbors were en- 
titled to a little harmless though exciting 
gossip two or three years later, when they 
learned that after D’Aulnay’s death the 
fascinating widower La Tour had promptly 
married Widow D’Aulnay, thus regaining 

his jewels and plate, and both had 

settled down to a long and 
peaceful life in Nova 
Scotia. 


CHAPTER V. 
A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 


N the autumn and winter of the year 
1704, Madam Sarah Knight, a resident 
of Boston, made a journey on horseback 
from Boston to New York, and returned in 
the same manner. It was a journey difficult 
and perilous, “full of buggbears to a fearfull 
female travailler,’ and which “startled a 
masculine courage,’ but which was _per- 
formed by this woman with the company 
and protection only of hired guides, the 
“Western Post,” or whatever chance travel- 
ler she might find journeying her way, at 
a time when brave men feared to travel 
through New England, and asked for public 
prayers in church before starting on a jour- 
ney of twenty miles. She was probably the 
first woman who made such a journey, in 
such a manner, in this country. 
Madam Knight was the daughter of Cap- 
tain Kemble, of Boston, who was in 1656 set 


136 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


two hours in the public stocks as a punish- 
ment for his “lewd and unseemly behavior,” 
which consisted in his kissing his wife ‘ pub- 
licquely”’ on the Sabbath Day, upon the 
doorstep of his house, when he had just 
returned from a voyage and absence of three 
years. 

The diary which Madam kept on this 
eventful trip contains the names of no per- 
sons of great historical interest, though 
many of historical mention; but it is such a 
vivacious and sprightly picture of the cus- 
toms of the time, and such a valuable de- 
scription of localities as they then appeared, 
that it has an historical interest of its own, 
and is a welcome addition to the few diaries 
and records of the times which we possess. 

Everything was not all serene and pleas- 
ant in the years 1704 and 1705 in New 
England. Events had occurred which could 
not have been cheerful for Madam Knight 
to think of when riding through the lonely 
Narragansett woods and along the shores of 
the Sound. News of the frightful Indian 
massacre at Deerfield had chilled the very 
hearts of the colonists. At Northampton 
shocking and most unexpected cruelties had 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 137 


been perpetrated by the red men. At Lan- 
caster, not any too far from Boston, the In- 
dians had been most obstreperous. We can 
imagine Madam Knight had no very pleas- 
ant thoughts of these horrors when she 
wrote her description of the red men whom 
she saw in such numbers in Connecticut. 
Bears and wolves, too, abounded in the lonely 
woods of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
The howls of wolves were heard every night, 
and rewards were paid by New England 
towns for the heads of wolves that were 
killed, provided the heads were brought into 
town and nailed to the side of the meeting- 
house. Twenty-one years later than Madam 
Knight's journey, in 1725, twenty bears were 
killed in one week in September, within two 
miles of Boston, so says the //zstory of Rox- 
bury ; and all through the eighteenth cen- 
tury bears were hunted and killed in upper 
Narragansett. Hence ‘“ buggbears”’ were 
not the only bears to be dreaded on the 
lonely journey. 

The year 1704 was memorable also because 
it gave birth to the first newspaper in the 
colonies, the Boston News-Letter. Only a 
few copies were printed each week, and each 


138 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


copy contained but four or five square feet 
of print, and the first number contained but 
one advertisement —that of the man who 
printed it. 

When Madam Knight’s journal was pub- 
lished in New York by Mr. Theodore Dwight, 
in 1825, the editor knew nothing of the dia- 
rist, not even her family name; hence it 
was confidently believed by many that the 
journal was merely a clever and entertaining 
fiction. In 1852, however, Miss Caulkins 
published her history of the town of New 
London, and contradicted that belief, for she 
gave an account of the last days of Madam 
Knight, which were spent in Norwich and 
New London. Madam Knight’s daughter 
married the Colonel Livingston who is men- 
tioned in the journal, and left no children. 
From a descendant of Mrs. Livingston’s 
administratrix, Mrs. Christopher, the manu- 
script of the journal was obtained for pub- 
lication in 1825, it having been carefully 
preserved all those years. In Llackwood's 
Magazine for the same year an article ap- 
peared, entitled 77vavelling tn America, which 
reprinted nearly all of Madam Knight’s jour- 
nal, and which showed a high appreciation 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 139 


of its literary and historical merits. In 1858 
it was again printed by request in Lzttell’s 
Living Age, with some notes of Madam 
Knight’s life, chiefly compiled from Miss 
Caulkins’ Azstory of New London, and again 
provoked much inquiry and discussion. Re- 
cently a large portion of the journal has 
been reprinted in the Lzbrvary of American 
Literature, with many alterations, however, 
in the spelling, use of capitals, and punctua- 
tion, thus detracting much from the interest 
and quaintness of the work; and most un- 
necessarily, since it is perfectly easy to read 
and understand it as first printed, when, 
as the editor said, “the original orthogra- 
phy was carefully preserved for fear of intro- 
ducing any unwarrantable modernism.” 

The first edition is now seldom seen for 
sale, and being rare is consequently high- 
priced. The little shabby, salmon-colored 
copy of the book which I saw was made in- 
teresting by two manuscript accounts of 
Sarah Knight, which were inserted at the 
end of the book, and which are very valua- 
ble, since they give positive proof of the 
reality of the fair traveller, as well as addi- 
tional facts of her life. 


140 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


The first account was in a fine old-fash- 
ioned, unpunctuated handwriting, on yellow, 
time-stained paper, and read thus : — 


Madam Knight was born in Boston She was 
the daughter of Capt. Kemble who was a rich 
merchant of Boston he was a native of Great 
Britain settled in Boston built him a large house 
for that day near New North Square in the year 
1676 this daughter Sarah Kemble was married 
to a son of a London trader by the name of 
Knight he died abroad and left her a smart 
young widow in October 1703 she made a jour- 
ney to New York to claim some property of his 
there. She returned on horse-backe March 1705 
Soon after her return she opened a school for 
children Dr. Frankelin and Dr Saml Mather 
secured their first rudiments of Education from 
her her parents both died and as She was the 
only child they left she continued to keep school 
in the Mansion house till the year 1714. She 
then sold the estate to Peter Papillion he died 
not long after in the year 1736 Thomas Hutchin- 
son Esqr purchased the estate of John Wolcott, 
who was administrator of the Papillion estate Mr 
Hutchinson gave the estate to his daughter Han- 
nah who was the wife of Dr Saml Mather. The 
force of Madam Knight’s Diamond Ring was 
displayed on several panes of glass in the old 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. I4! 


house in the year 1763 Dr Mather had the house 
new glazed and one pane of glass was preserved 
as a curiosity for years till 1775 it was lost at the 
conflagration when Charlestown was burnt by 
the British June 17th. The lines on the pane of 
glass were committed to memory by the present 
writer. She was an original genius our ideas of 
Madam are formed from hearing Dr Frankelin 
and Dr Mather converse about their old school 


misstress 
Through many toils and many frights 
I have returned poor Sarah Knights 
Over great rocks and many stones 
God has preserv’d from fractur’d bones 


as spelt on the pane of glass. 


Underneath this account was written in 
the clear, distinct chirography of Isaiah 
Thomas, the veteran printer, this endorse- 
MCN 

The above was written by Mrs. Hannabell 
Crocker, of Boston, granddaughter of the Rev. 
Cotton Mather, and presented to me by that 
lady. — IsataH ‘THOMAS. 

The other manuscript account is substan- 
tially the same, though in a different hand- 
writing ; it tells of the pane of glass with the 
rhymed inscription being “preserved as a 
curiosity by an antiquicrity’”’ (which is a 


142 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


delightful and useful old word-concoction), 
‘until the British set fire to the town,” in 
Revolutionary times, and ‘Poor Madam 
Knight's poetrys, with other curiosities, were 
consumed.’ It says, “She obtained the 
honorable title of Madam by being a famous 
schoolmistress in her day. She taught Dr. 
Franklin to write. She was highly respected 
by Dr. Cotton Mather as a woman of good 
wit & pleasant humour.” 

Sarah Knight was born in 1666, and thus 
was about thirty-eight years old when she 
made her “perilous journey.’ She started 
October 2d, and did not reach New York 
until December 6th. Of course much of 
this time was spent visiting friends and 
kinsfolk in New London and New Haven, 
and often, too, she had to wait to obtain 
companion travellers. She rode upon the 
first night of her journey until very late in 
order to “overtake the post,” and this is the 
account of her reception at her first lodging- 
place :— 

My guide dismounted and very complasently 
and shewed the door signing to me with his hand 
to Go in, which I Gladly did. But had not gone 
many steps into the room ere I was interrogated 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 143 


by a young Lady I understood afterwards was 
the Eldest daughter of the family, with these, 
or words to this purpose, (viz) Law for mee — 
what in the world brings you here at this time-a- 
night? JI never see a woman on the Rode so 
Dreadfull late in all my Varsall Life. Who are 
You? Where are you going? I’m scar’d out of 
my witts— with much now of the same Kind 
I stood aghast Prepareing no reply — when in 
come my Guide —to him Madam turn’d roreing 
out: Lawfull heart John is it You? how de do? 
Where in the world are you going with this wo- 
man? Who is She? John made no Ans’r but 
sat down in the corner, fumbled out his black 
Junk, and saluted that instead of Debb. She 
then turned agen to mee and fell anew into her 
silly questions without asking mee to sit down. 
I told her she treated mee very Rudely and I did 
not think it my duty to answer her unmannerly 
Questions. But to gett ridd of them I told her 
I come there to have the Posts company with 
me to-morrow on my Journey &c. Miss stared 
awhile, drew a chair bid me sitt And then run 
upstairs and putts on two or three Rings (or else 
I had not seen them before) and returning sett 
herself just before me shewing the way to Red- 
ing, that I might see her Ornaments. 


It appears from this account that human 


144 COLOMIJAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


nature, or rather feminine love of display, 
was the same in colonial times as in the 
present day. 

Very vivid are her descriptions of the va- 
rious beds upon which she reposed. This is 
her entry in her diary after the first night of 
her journey :— 

I pray’d Miss to shew me where I must Lodg. 
Shee conducted me to a parlour in a little back 
Lento, which was almost filled with the bedstead, 
which was so high that I was forced to climb 
on a chair to gitt up to ye wretched bed that 
lay on it, on which having Strecht my tired 
Limbs, and lay’d my head on a Sad-colour’d 
pillow, I began to think on the transactions of 
ye past day. 

We can imagine her (if such an intrusive 
fancy is not impertinent after one hundred 
and eighty years), attired in her night-hood 
and her “flowered calico night-rayle with 
high collared neck,” climbing wearily upon 
a chair and thence to the mountainous bed 
with its dingy pillow. The fashion of wear- 
ing “immoderate great rayles’’ had been 
prohibited by law in Massachusetts in 1634, 
but the garment mentioned must have been 
some kind of a loose gown worn in the day- 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 145 


time, for we cannot fancy that even the med- 
dlesome interference and aspiring ambition 
for omnipotence of those Puritan magistrates 
would make them dare to attempt to con- 
trol what kind of a nightgown a woman 
should wear. 

Here is another vivid description of a 
night’s lodging, where her room was shared, 
as was the country custom of that time (and 
indeed for many years later), by the men 
who had journeyed with her :— 

Arriving at my apartment found it to be a 
little Lento Chamber furnished amongst other 
Rubbish with a High Bedd and a Low one, a 
Long Table, a Bench and a Bottomless chair. 
Little Miss went to scratch up my Kennell 
which Russelled as if shee’d bin in the Barn 
amongst the Husks, and supose such was the 
contents of the tickin — nevertheless being ex- 
ceeding weary-down I laid my poor Carkes 
(never more tired) and found my Covering as 
scanty as my Bed was hard. Anon I heard an- 
other Russelling noise in Ye Room — called to 
know the matter — Little Miss said shee was 
making a bed for the men; who, when they were 
in Bed complained their leggs lay out of it by 
reason of its shortness —my poor bones com- 
plained bitterly not being used to such Lodgings, 


146 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


and so did the man who was with us; and poor 
I made but one Grone, which was from the time 
I went to bed to the time I Riss, which was 
about three in the morning, Setting up by the 
Fire till Light. 


The word “lento,” or ‘‘lean to,’ was some- 
times called “linter,” and you will still hear 
old-fashioned or aged country-people use the 
word. The “lean-to” was the rear portion 
of a form of house peculiar to New England, 
which was two stories high in front, with a 
roof which sloped down from a steep gable 
to a very low single story at the rear. 

Madam Sarah speaks with some surprise 
throughout her travels of the height of the 
beds, so it is evident that very towering beds 
were not in high fashion in Boston in 1704, 
in spite of the exceeding tall four-posters 
that have descended to us from our ancestors, 
and which surely no one could mount in mod- 
ern days without a chair as an accessory. 
Even a chair was not always a sufficient 
stepping-block by the bedsides that Madam 
Sarah found, for she thus writes: ‘“ He in- 
vited us to his house, and shewed me two 
pair of stairs, viz, one up the loft, and tother 
up the Bedd, which was as hard as it was 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 147 


high, and warmed with a hott stone at the 
foot.” 

After the good old Puritan custom of con- 
tumelious reviling, in which clergymen, lay- 
men, and legal lights alike joined, Madam 
Knight could show a rare choice of epithets 
and great fluency of uncomplimentary de- 
scription when angered. Having expected 
to lodge at the house of a Mr. DeVille in 
Narragansett, and being refused, she writes 
thus of the DeVilles :— 


I questioned whether we ought to go to the 
Devil to be helpt out of the affliction. However, 
like the Rest of Deluded souls that post to ye 
Infernall denn, Wee made all possible speed to 
this Devil’s Habitation; where alliting, in full 
assurance of good accommodation, wee were go- 
ing in. But meeting his two daughters, as I sup- 
osed twins, they so neerly resembled each other 
both in features and habit and look’t as old 
as the Divel himself, and quite as Ugly. We 
desired entertainment, but could hardly get a 
word out of ’um, till with our Importunity tell- 
ing them our necessity &c they call’d the old 
Sophister, who was as sparing of his words as 
his daughters had bin, and no or none, was the 
reply’s he made us to our demands. Hee dif- 


148 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


fered only in this from the old fellow in tother 
Country, hee let us depart. However I thought 
it proper to warn poor Travaillers to endeavour 
to Avoid falling into circumstances like ours, 
which at our next Stage I sat down and did as 
followeth : — 


May all that dread the cruel fiend of night 

Keep on and not at this curst Mansion light 

Tis Hell: Tis Hell: and Devills here do dwell 
Here Dwells the Devill — surely this is Hell. 
Nothing but Wants: a drop to cool yo’re Tongue 
Cant be procured those cruel Fiends among 
Plenty of horrid grins and looks sevear 

Hunger and thirst, But pitty’s banish’d here. 

The Right hand keep, if Hell on Earth you fear — 


Madam Knight had a habit of “dropping 
into poetry’’ very readily and upon almost 
any subject. Upon the moon, upon poverty, 
even upon the noise of drunken topers in the 
next room to her own. The night-scene that 
brought forth the rhymes upon rum was 
graced by a conversation upon the derivation 
of the word Narragansett, and her report of 
it is of much interest, and is always placed 
among the many and various authorities for, 
and suggestions about, the meaning of the 
word : — 


I went to bed which tho’ pretty hard Yet neet 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 149 


and handsome but I could get no sleep because 
of the Clamor of some of the Town-tope-ers in 
next Room who were entered into a strong de- 
bate concerning ye Signifycation of the name of 
their Country (viz) Narraganset. One said it was 
named so by ye Indians because there grew a 
Brier there of a prodigious Highth and bigness, 
the like hardly ever known, called by the Indians 
Narragansett. And quotes an Indian of so Bar- 
berous a name for his Author that I could not 
write it. His Antagonist Replyd No. — It was 
from a spring it had its name, which he well knew 
where it was, which was extreem cold in summer, 
and as Hott as could be imagined in the winter 
which was much resorted to by the natives and 
by them called Narragansett (Hott & Cold) and 
that was the originall of their places name — 
with a thousand Impertinances not worth notice, 
which He uttered with such a Roreing voice & 
Thundering blows with the fist of wickedness on 
the Table that it pierced my very head. I heart- 
ily fretted and wisht ’um tonguetyed; but with 
little success. 

They kept calling for tother Gill which while 
they were swallowing, was some Intermission But 
presently like Oyle to fire encreased the flame. 
I set my Candle on a Chest by the bedside, and 
setting up fell to my old way of composing my 
Resentments in the following manner : — 


150 COLOMIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


I ask thy aid O Potent Rum 

To charm these wrangling Topers Dum 
Thou hast their Giddy Brains possest 
The man confounded with the Beast 
And I, poor I, can get no rest 
Intoxicate them with thy fumes 

O still their Tongues till morning comes 


And I know not but my wishes took effect for 
the dispute soon ended with tother Dram. 


To one who, unused to venturing abroad 
in boats on stormy waters, has trusted her 
bodily safety to one of those ticklish Indian 
vehicles, a canoe, this vivid account of the 
sensations of an early female colonist in a 
similar situation may prove of interest; nor 
do I think, after the lapse of centuries, could 
the description be improved by the added 
words of our newer and more profuse vocab- 
ulary :— 


The Cannoo was very small & shallow so that 
when we were in she seemd redy to take in water 
which greatly terrify’d me, and caused me to be 
very circumspect, sitting with my hands fast on 
each side, my eyes stedy, not daring so much as 
to lodge my tongue a hairs breadth more on one 
side of my mouth than tother, nor so much as 
think on Lotts wife, for a very thought would 
have oversett our wherey. 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVA/ILLER. 151 


We are so accustomed to hearing of the 
great veneration and respect always shown 
in olden times by children toward their par- 
ents, and the dignified reserve and absolute 
authority of parents towards children, that 
the following scene rather shocks our estab- 
lished notions : — 


Thursday about 3 in the afternoon I set for- 
ward with neighbour Polly & Jemima a girl about 
18 years old, who her father said he had been to 
fetch out of the Narragansetts and said they had 
rode thirty miles that day on a sorry lean Jade 
with only a Bagg under her for a pillion which 
the poor Girl often complain’d was very uneasy. 
Wee made Good speed along wch made poor 
Jemima make many a sowr face the mare being 
a very hard trotter, and after many a hearty 
& bitter Oh she at length low’d out: Lawful 
Heart father! this bare mare hurts mee Dingeely. 
I’m direfull sore I vow, with many words to that 
purpose. Poor Child — sais Gaffer — she us’t to 
serve your mother so. I dont care how mother 
ust to do, quoth Jemima in a passionate tone. 
At which the old man Laught and kikt his Jade 
o’ the side, which made her Jolt ten times harder. 
About seven that evening we came to New Lon- 
don Ferry here by reason of a very high wind, 
we mett with great difficulty in getting over. The 


I§2 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


boat tost exceedingly and our Horses cappered 
at a very Surprising rate and set us all in a fright 
especially poor Jemima who desired father to say 
So Jack! to the Jade to make her stand. But 
the careless parent, taking no notice of her 
repeated desires, She Rored out in a Pasionate 
manner Pray Suth father Are you deaf? Say So 
Jack to the Jade I tell you. The Dutiful Parent 
obeyed saying So Jack So Jack as gravely as if 
he had bin= saying Chatchise after young Miss 
who with her fright look’t all the Colours of ye 
Rainbow. 


It is very evident from entries in her Jour- 
nal that Madam Knight thought much of 
gratifying her appetite, for the food she ob- 
tained at her different resting-places is often 
described. She says :— 


Landlady told us shee had some mutton which 
shee would broil. In a little time she bro’t it in 
but it being pickled and my Guide said it smelt 
strong of head-sause we left it and paid six pence 
apiece for our dinners which was only smell. 


Again, she thus describes a meal : — 


Having call’d for something to eat the woman 
bro’t in a Twisted thing like a cable, but some- 
thing whiter, laying it on the bord, tugg’d for 
life to bring it into a capacity to spread ; which 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 153 


having with great pains accomplished shee served 
a dish of Pork and Cabage I supose the remains 
of Dinner. The sause was of a deep purple 
which I tho’t was boiled in her dye Kettle ; the 
bread was Indian and everything on the Table 
service agreeable to these. I being hungry gott 
a little down, but my stomach was soon cloy’d 
and what cabage I swallowed served me for a 
Cudd the whole day after. 


The early colonists never turned very read- 
ily to Indian meal and pumpkins — pumpions 
as they called them in the ‘times wherein 
old Pompion was a saint;’’ and Johnson, 
in his Wonder- Working Providence, reproved 
them for making a jest of pumpkins, since 
they were so good a food. Madam Knight 
had them offered to her very often, ‘‘ pump- 
kin sause” and ‘pumpkin bred.” ‘We 
would have eat a morsell ourselves But the 
Pumpkin and Indian-mixt Bread had such an 
aspect, and the Bare-legg’d Punch so awkerd 
or rather Awfull a sound that we left both.” 

She gives a glimpse of rather awkward 
table-manners when she complains that in 
Connecticut masters permitted their slaves 
to sit and eat with them, ‘“‘and into the dish 
goes the black Hoof as freely as the white 


154 COLONJAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


hand.” Doubtless in those comparatively 
forkless days fingers were very freely used 
at the table. 

She tells many curious facts about Con- 
necticut. Divorces were plentiful in that 
State, as they are at the present day. She 
writes : — 

These uncomely Standaways are too much in 
Vogue among the English in this Indulgent Col- 
ony as their Records plentifully prove, and that 
on very trivial matters of which some have been 
told me, but are not Proper to be Related by a 
Female Pen. 


She says they will not allow harmless kiss- 
ing among the young people, and she tells of 
a curious custom at weddings, where the 
bridegroom ran away and had to be chased 
and dragged back by force to the bride. 

Her descriptions of the city of New 
York; of the public vendues “ where they 
give drinks;” of the Dutch houses and 
women; of the “sley-riding’’ where she 
“mett fifty or sixty sleys,’ are all very en- 
tertaining. There were few sleighs in Bos- 
ton at that date. Everything is compared 
with ‘ours in Boston,” or said to be “not 
like Boston,” after a fashion still somewhat 


ia 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 155 


followed by the Boston “ Female Pen” of 
the present day. As New York then was 
only a small town of five thousand inhab- 
itants, while Big Boston possessed ten thou- 
sand inhabitants, such comparisons were 
certainly justifiable. 

We must give her vivid and vivacious 
picture of a country “lubber”’ in a mer- 
chant’s shop :— 


In comes a tall country fellow with his Alfo- 
geos full of Tobaco. He advanced to the middle 
of the room, makes an awkward nodd and spit- 
ting a large deal of Aromatic Tincture, he gave 
a scrape with his shovel-like shoo, leaving a small 
shovel-full of dirt on the floor, made a full stop, 
hugging his own pretty body with his hands 
under his arms, Stood Staring round him like a 
Catt let out of a Baskett. At last like the crea- 
ture Balaam rode on he opened his mouth and 
said Have you any Ribinen for Hat bands to sell I 
pray? The Questions and answers about the 
pay being past the Ribin is bro’t and opened. 
Bumpkin simpers, cryes, /¢s confounded Gay I 
vow; and beckoning to the door in comes Joan 
Tawdry, dropping about 50 curtsies, and stands 
by him. He shews her the Ribin. Law You, 
sais shee, zfs right Gent, do you take it, its dread- 
Jul pretty. Then she enquires: Have you any 


156 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


hood sitk I pray? which being brought and 
bought. Have you any Thred silk to sew it with ? 
says shee, which being accomodated with they 
departed. 

Though Madam Knight left no account 
of the costume which she wore on her 
“perilous journey,” 
the fashions of the time were and of what 
her dress consisted. She wore a woollen 


we know very well what 


round-gown, perhaps of camlet, perhaps of 
calimanco, of which the puffed sleeves came 
to the elbow and were finished with knots 
of ribbons and ruffles. Riding-habits were 
then never worn. I am sure she did not 
wear a neck-ruff on this journey, but a scarf 
or neck-kerchief or ‘cross cloth” instead. 
Long gloves of leather or kid protected her 
fair hands, and came to the elbow, and were 
firmly secured at the top by “ glove-tightens ” 
made of braided black horsehair. A pointed 
beaver or beaverette hat covered her head; 
the hat and peruke had not then reached the 
excessive size which made them for a lady’s 
“riding equipage’’ so bitterly and openly 
condemned in 1737 as an exceeding and 
abominable affectation. She doubtless wore 
instead of the fine, stately peruke, a cap, a 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 157 


) 


“round cap,” which did not cover the ears, 
ora “strap cap,” which came under the chin ; 
or perhaps a “quoif”’ or a “ciffer”” — New 
England French for cozffure. During her 
cold winter ride home she surely donned a 
hood. One is described at that date thus: 
‘A woman’s worsted camlet riding-hood of 
erayish color faced with crimson coulour’d 
Persian.” Over her shoulders she wore a 
heavy woollen short cloak, or a scarlet ‘ whit- 
tle,’ and doubtless also added a “ drugget- 
petticoat’ for warmth, or a “safeguard” for 
protection against mud. High-heeled pointed 
shoes of leather, with knots of green ribbon 
or silver buckles, completed Madam Sarah’s 
picturesque and comfortable attire. One 
other useful article of dress, or rather of 
protection, she surely as a lady of high gen- 
tility carried and wore: a riding-mask made 
of black velvet with a silver mouthpiece, or 
with two little strings with a silver bead at 
the end, which she placed in either corner 
of her mouth, to hold her mask firmly in 
place. 

The “nagg”’ upon which Madam rode was 
without doubt a pacer, as were all good sad- 
dle-horses at that date. No one making any 


158 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


pretension to fashion or good style would 
ride upon a trotting-horse, nor indeed until 
Revolutionary times was a trotter regarded 
as of any account or worth. 

I do not think Madam Knight had a Nar- 
ragansett pacer, for as soon as they were 
raised in any numbers they were sent at once 
to the West Indies for the use of the wives 
and daughters of the wealthy sugar-planters, 
and few New England people could afford to 
own them. The “horse furniture” of which 
she speaks included, of course, het side-sad- 
dle and saddle-bag, which held her travelling- 
wardrobe and her precious journal. 

Madam Sarah Knight did not end her 
days in Boston. She removed to Norwich, 
Conn., and in 1717 it is recorded that she 
gave a silver cup for the communion-service 
of the church there. The town in gratitude, 
by vote, gave her liberty to “sitt in the pue 
where she was used to sitt in ye meeting 
house.” She also kept an inn on the Liv- 
ingston Farm near New London, and I 
doubt not a woman of her large experience 
kept a good ordinary. No rustling beds, no 
sad-colored pillow-bears, no saucy maids, no 
noisy midnight topers, no doubtful fricassees, 


A FEARFULL FEMALE TRAVAILLER. 159 


no pumpkin-bread, and, above all, no bare- 
legged punch in her house. 

It is painful to record, however, that in 
1718 the teacher of Benjamin Franklin and 
friend of Cotton Mather was indicted and 
fined for “selling strong liquor to Indians.”’ 

Altogether, Madam Knight was far ahead 
of the time in which she lived. She wasa 
woman of great energy and talent. She kept 
a school when a woman-teacher was almost 
unheard of. She ranatavern,ashop. She 
wrote poetry and a diary. She cultivated a 
farm, and owned mills, and speculated largely 
in Indian lands, and was altogether a sharp 

business-woman ; and she must have 
been counted an extraordinary 
character in those early 
days. 


CHAPTER VI. 
TWO COLONIAL ADVENTURESSES. 


yAN: “STRANGE true story of Louisiana”’ 
so furnished with every attractive 
element of romance, so calculated to satisfy 
every exaction of literary art, that it seems 
marvellous it has not been eagerly seized 
upon and frequently utilized by dramatists 
and novelists, is that of a Louisiana princess 
— or pretender — whose death in a Parisian 
convent in 1771 furnished a fruitful topic of 
speculation and conversation in the courts 
of France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia. 
This Louisiana princess (were she no pre- 
tender) was the daughter-in-law of Peter the 
Great of Russia, wife of the Grand Duke 
Alexis, and mother of Peter II. of Russia. 
The story, as gathered from a few European 
authorities and some old French chronicles 
and histories of Louisiana, is this. 

The Princess Christine, daughter of a Ger- 
man princeling and wife of the Grand Duke 


TWO COLONIAL ADVENTURESSES. I61 


Alexis, is said by Russian official and histor- 
ical records to have died in 1716 after a short 
and most unhappy married life with a brutal 
royal profligate, and to have been buried 
with proper court honors and attendance. 
But there is another statement, half-history, 
half-romance, which denies that she died at 
that time, and asserts that her death and 
burial were but a carefully planned decep- 
tion, to permit her to escape her intolerable 
life in Russia, and only concealed her suc- 
cessful flight from St. Petersburg and the 
power of the Russian throne. Aided by the 
famous Countess Konigsmark, the princess, 
after some delay and frightened hiding in 
France, sailed from the port of L’Orient, 
accompanied by an old devoted court re- 
tainer named Walter. Of course there must 
always be a lover to form a true romance, 
and a young officer named D’Aubant suc- 
cessfully fills that rdle. He had often seen 
Christine in the Russian court, and had 
rescued her from danger when she was hunt- 
ing in the Hartz Mountains, and had cherished 
for her a deep though hopeless love. When 
the news of her death came to the know- 
ledge of Chevalier D’Aubant, he sadly left 


162 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


the Czar’s service and went to France. 
Soon after he chanced to see at the cathe- 
dral in Poitiers a woman who raised her veil, 
glanced at him with a look of recognition, 
and apparently a face like that of his loved 
Christine. After long search for the un- 
known, he found her temporary home, only 
to learn that she, with her father Mons. 
De L’Ecluse (who was of course Walter), 
had just sailed for the New World. But the 
woman of the house gave him a slip of paper 
which the fair one had left for him in case 
he called and asked concerning her. On it 
was written this enigmatical lure : — 
I have drunk of the waters of Lethe, 
Hope yet remains to me. 

Now, he would not have been an ideal court- 
lover, nor indeed but a sorry hero, if, after 
such a message, he had not promply sailed 
after the possible Christine. He learned 
that the vessel which bore her was to land 
at Biloxi, Louisiana. He sailed for the same 
port with his fortune in his pockets. But 
on arriving in Louisiana, Walter (or Mons. 
De L’Ecluse) had taken the disguising name 
of Walter Holden, and Christine posed as 
his daughter, Augustine Holden; so her 


TWO COLONIAL ADVENTURESSES. 163 


knight-errant thus lost trace of her. Chris- 
tine-Augustine and her father settled in the 
Colonie Roland on the Red River. D’Au- 
bant, with sixty colonists, founded a settle- 
ment but fifty miles away, which he named 
the Valley of Christine. Of course in due 
time the lovers met, and disguise was impos- 
sible and futile, and Augustine confessed 
her identity with the Crown Princess. As 
her husband Alexis had by this time con- 
veniently died in prison, in Moscow, where 
he had been tried and condemned to death 
(and probably been privately executed), there 
was no reason, save the memory of her past 
exalted position, why she should not become 
the wife of an honest planter. They were 
married by a Spanish priest, and lived for 
twenty happy years in the Valley of Chris- 
tine. 

But D’Aubant’s health failed, and he 
sought physicians in Paris. One day when 
Christine was walking in the garden of the 
Tuileries, with her two daughters, the chil- 
dren of D’Aubant, the German conversation 
of the mother attracted the attention of Mar- 
shal Saxe, who was the son of the very 
Countess Konigsmark who had aided Chris- 


164. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


tine’s escape. The marshal recognized the 
princess at once, in spite of the lapse of 
years, and through his influence with Louis 
- XV. obtained for D’Aubant a commission as 
major of troops, and the office of governor 
of the Isle of Bourbon. The King also 
informed the Empress of Austria, who was 
a niece of Christine, that her aunt was alive; 
and an invitation was sent from the Empress 
for the D’Aubant family to become resi- 
dents of the Austrian Court. They remained, 
however, at the Isle of Bourbon until the 
death of D’Aubant and the two daughters, 
when Christine came to Brunswick and was 
granted a pension for life by the Empress. 
Her death in a convent, and her burial, took 
place over half a century after her pre- 
tended legal demise. 

This is the Christine of romance, of court 
gossip, of court credulity, but there is an- 
other aspect of her story. Judge Martin 
has written a standard history of Louisiana. 
In it he says :— 

Two hundred German settlers of Law’s grant 
were landed in the month of March 1721 at Bi- 
loxi out of the twelve hundred who had been 
recruited. There came among the German new- 


TWO COLONIAL ADVENTURESSES. 165 


comers a female adventurer. She had been at- 
tached to the wardrobe of the wife of the Czaro- 
witz Alexis Petrovitz, the only son of Peter the 
Great. She imposed on the credulity of many 
persons, particularly on that of an officer of the 
garrison of Mobile (called by Bossu, the Cheva- 
lier D’Aubant, and by the King of Prussia, Wal- 
deck), who, having seen the princess at St. Peters- 
burg imagined he recognized her features in 
those of her former servant, and gave credit to 
the report that she was the Duke of Wolfenbut- 
tels daughter, and the officer married her. 


Grimm and Voltaire in their letters, Le- 
vesque in his History, all unite in pronoun- 
cing her an impostor. But you can choose 
your own estimate of this creature of high 
romance ; if you elect to deem her a prin- 
cess, you find yourself in the goodly com- 
pany of the King of France, the Empress of 
Austria, Marshal Saxe, and a vast number 
of other folk of rank and intelligence. 

In the year 1771 there was sent to this 
country from England a woman convict, 
who had in her enforced home a most ex- 
traordinary and romantic career of success- 
ful fraud. 

The first account which I have seen of 


166 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


her was printed in the Gentleman's Mag- 
azine in 1771, and told simply of her start- 
ling intrusion into the Queen’s apartments 
in London; but Dr. Doran’s Lives of the 
Queens of England of the House of Han- 
over gives this account of this interesting bit 
of Anglo-American romance. 


Sarah Wilson, yielding to a strong temptation 
in the year 1771, filched one or two of the 
Queen’s jewels, and was condemned to be exe- 
cuted. It was considered almost a violation of 
justice that the thief should be saved from the 
halter and be transported instead of hanged. 
She was sent to America, where she was allotted 
as slave, or servant, to a Mr. Dwale, Bud Creek, 
Frederick County. Queen Charlotte would have 
thought nothing more of her, had her majesty 
not heard with some surprise, that her sister 
Susannah Caroline Matilda was keeping her 
court in the plantations. Never was surprise 
more genuine than the Queen’s; it was exceeded 
only by her hilarity when it was discovered that 
the Princess Susannah was simply Sarah Wilson, 
at large. That somewhat clever girl having 
stolen a Queen’s jewels, thought nothing, after 
escaping from the penal service to which she 
was condemned, of passing herself off as a 
Queen’s sister. The Americans were not so 


TWO COLONIAL ADVENTURESSES. 167 


acute as their descendants; so in love were 
some of them with the greatness they affected to 
despise, that they paid royal honors to the clever 
impostor. She passed the most joyous of sea- 
sons before she was consigned again to increase 
of penalty for daring to pretend relationship with 
the consort of King George. The story of the 
presuming girl, whose escapades, however, were 
not fully known in England at that time, served, 
as far as knowledge of them had reached the 
court, to amuse the gossips who had assembled 
about the cradle of the young Elizabeth. 


In this account of Dr. Doran’s there are 
some errors. The real story of the crime 
of Sarah Wilson and her subsequent career 
was this. In August, 1770, a strange woman 
found her way by means of a private stair- 
case to the apartments of Queen Charlotte. 
She entered a room where the Queen and 
the Duchess of Ancaster were sitting, to 
their alarm. While she was taking a lei- 
surely survey of the contents of the room, 
a page was summoned, who expelled the in- 
truder, but did not succeed in arresting her. 
Shortly after, the Queen’s apartments were 
broken into by a thief, who stole valuable 
jewels and a miniature of the Queen. The 


168 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


thief proved to be a woman named Sarah 
Wilson, who had been maid of the Honorable 
Miss Vernon, and this thief was asserted to 
be the inquisitive intruder whose visit had 
so alarmed the Queen. 

Sarah Wilson was arrested, tried as a felon, 
and sentenced to death; but by the exertions 
and influence of her former mistress the 
sentence was commuted to transportation to 
the American colonies for a seven years’ 
term of servitude. This leniency caused 
considerable stir in London and some dis- 
satisfaction. 

In 1771, after passage in a convict ship, 
Sarah Wilson was sold to a Mr. William 
Duvall, of Bush Creek, Frederick County, 
Maryland, for seven years’ servitude. After 
a short time, in which she apparently de- 
veloped her plans of fraud, she escaped from 
her master, and went to Virginia and the 
Carolinas, where she assumed the title of 
Princess Susannah Caroline Matilda, and as- 
serted she was the sister of the Queen of 
England. She still owned the miniature of 
the Queen, and some rich jewels, which gave 
apparent proof of her assertion, and it is 
said some rich clothing. It is indeed mys- 


TWO COLONIAL ADVENTURESSES. 169 


terious that a transported convict could 
retain in her possession, through all her 
reverses, the very jewels for whose theft she 
was punished; yet the story can scarcely be 
doubted. 

She travelled through the South from 
plantation to plantation, with plentiful prom- 
ises of future English offices and court 
favors to all who assisted her progress; and 
liberal sums of money were placed at her 
disposal, to be repaid by Queen Charlotte ; 
and she seems to have been universally wel- 
comed and feasted. 

But the fame of the royal visitor spread 
afar and found its way to Bush Creek, to the 
ears of Mr. Duvall, and he promptly sus- 
pected that he had found trace of his ingen- 
ious runaway servant. As was the custom 
of the day, he advertised for her and a reward 
for her capture. The notice reads thus :— 


Bush Creek, Frederick County, Maryland, Oc- 
tober 11, 1771. Ran away from the subscriber 
a convict servant named SARAH WILSON, but has 
changed her name to Lady Susannah Caroline 
Matilda, which made the public believe that she 
was her Majesty’s sister. She has a blemish in 
her right eye, black roll’d hair, stoops in the 


170 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


shoulders, and makes a common practice of writ- 
ing and marking her clothes with a crown and 
a B. Whoever secures the said servant woman 
or will take her home, shall receive five pistoles, 
besides all cost of charges. William Duvall. 

I entitle Michael Dalton to search the city of 
Philadelphia, and from there to Charleston, for 
the said woman. 


Beauty readily inspires confidence, and dig- 
nity commands it. But a woman with such 
scant personal charms, with a blemish in her 
eye and stooping shoulders, must have been 
most persuasive in conversation to have sur- 
mounted such obstacles. It is said that she 
was most gracious, yet commanding. 

To elude Michael Dalton’s authorized 
search from Philadelphia to Charleston, 
Sarah Wilson fled from her scenes of suc- 
cess, but also of too familiar and extensive 
acquaintance, to New York. But New York 
proved still too near to Maryland, so she took 
passage for Newport. Here her fame pre- 
ceded her, for in the Newport Mercury of 
November 29, 1773, is this notice :— 


Last Tuesday arrived here from New York 
the lady who has passed through several of the 
southern colonies under the name and character 


TWO COLOMIAL ADVENTURESSES. 171 


of CAROLINE Matiupa, Marchioness de Wald- 
grave; etc.,,etc: 


I do not know the steps that led to her 
capture and removal, but at the end of the 
year the Marchioness was back on William 
Duvall’s plantation, and bound to serve a 
redoubled term of years. It seems to be 
probable that she also suffered more ignoble 
punishment, for Judge Martin says in his 
ffistory of Loutsiana : — 


A female driven for her misconduct from the 
service of a maid of honor of Princess Matilda, 
sister of George III., was convicted at the Old 
Bailey and transported to Maryland. She ef- 
fected her escape before the expiration of her 
time, and travelled through Virginia and both 
the Carolinas personating the Princess, and levy- 
ing contributions on the credulity of the planters 
and merchants and even some of the kings off- 
cers. She was at last arrested in Charleston, 
prosecuted and whipped. 


I often wonder what became of the Brum- 
magem princess, with her jewels and her 
personal blemishes; and I often fancy that 
I find traces of her career, still masquerading, 
still imposing on simple folk. For instance, 


172 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Rev. Manasseh Cutler wrote, at his home in 
Ipswich Hamlet, Mass., on January 25, 1775: 

A lady came to our house who had made a 
great noise in the country, and has been made 
the occasion of various conjectures. She calls 
herself Caroline Augusta Harriet, Duchess of 
Brownstonburges. Says she has resided in the 
Court of England for several years, that she 
eloped from the palace of St. James. She ap- 
pears to be a person of an extraordinary educa- 
tion, and well acquainted with things at Court, 
but she is generally supposed to be an impostor, 


Three days later he writes that he “con- 
veyed the extraordinary visitor to town ina 
chaise.” With this glimpse of Sarah — if 
Sarah she were — visiting in a little New 
England town in a sober Puritan family, and 
riding off to Boston in a chaise with the 
pious Puritan preacher, she vanishes from 
our ken, to be obscured in the smoke of 
battle and the din of war, and forced 
to learn that to American patriots 
it was no endearing trait to 
pose as an English 
princess. 


CHAPTER VII. 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. 


IR THOMAS BROWNE says that “ all 
heresies, how gross soever, have found 

a welcome with the people.” Certainly they 
have with the people, and specially they 
have with the Rhode Island people. The 
eighty-two pestilent heresies so sadly de- 
plored by the Puritan divines found a home 
in Rhode Island and the Providence Planta- 
tions. It was not strange, therefore, that 
from the heart of Narragansett should spring 
one of the most remarkable and _ success- 
ful religious woman-fanatics the world has 
ever known. Jemima Wilkinson was born 
in the town of Cumberland, R.I., in 1758. 
Though her father was a poor farmer, she 
came of no mean stock. She was a descend- 
ant of English kings—of King Edward I. 
—and later of Lieutenant Wilkinson, of 
Cromwell's army, and she was a second cou- 


174. COLOMIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


sin of Governor Stephen Hopkins and Com- 
modore Hopkins. 

When she was eight years old her mother 
died, leaving her to the care of older sisters, 
whom she soon completely dominated. She 
was handsome, fond of ease and dress, vain, 
and eager for attention. She was romantic 
and impressionable, and when a new sect of 
religious zealots, called Separatists, appeared 
in her neighborhood—a sect who rejected 
church organization and insisted upon direct 
guidance from heaven— she became one of 
the most regular attendants at their meet- 
ings. 

She soon betook herself to solitude and 
study of the Bible, and seemed in deep re- 
flection, and at last kept wholly to her room, 
and then went to bed. She was at that time 
but eighteen years old, and it scarcely seems 
possible that she deliberately planned out her 
system of life-long deception which proved 
so successful; but soon she began to see 
visions, which she described to her sisters 
and visitors, and interpreted to them. 

Finally she fell in a deep trance, which 
lasted thirty-six hours, during which she 
scarcely breathed. About the middle of 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. 175 


the second day, when surrounded by anxious 
watchers (who proved valuable witnesses in 
her later career), she rose up majestically, 
called for clothing, dressed herself, and 
walked about fully restored and calm, though 
pale. But she announced that Jemima Wil- 
kinson had died, and that her body was now 
inhabited by a spirit whose mission was to 
deliver the oracles of God to mankind, and 
who was to be known henceforth by the 
name of the Universal Friend. It ought to 
be noted here that this girl of eighteen not 
only maintained these absurd claims of res- 
urrection of the body and reincarnation, at 
that time, in the face of the expostulation 
and arguments of her relatives and friends, 
but also with unshaken firmness, and before 
all hearers, till the day of her death at the 
age of sixty-one. 

On the first Sunday after her trance, the 
Universal Friend preached in the open air 
near her home to a large and excited gather- 
ing of people; and she electrified her audi- 
ence by her eloquence, her brilliant imagi- 
nation, her extraordinary familiarity with 
the Scriptures, and her facility and force of 
application and quotation from them. Her 


176 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


success in obtaining converts was most 
marked from the first, as was her success 
in obtaining temporal comforts and benefits 
from these converts. In this she resembled 
the English religious adventuress, Johanna 
Southcote. For six years she lived at the 
house of Judge William Potter, in South 
Kingstown, R. I. This handsome house 
was known as the Abbey. He enlarged it 
by building a splendid suite of rooms for his 
beloved spiritual leader, on whom he lavished 
his large fortune. 

Her success as a miracle-worker was not 
so great. She announced that on a certain 
date she would walk upon the water, but 
when, in the face of a large multitude, she 
reached the water’s edge, she denounced the 
lack of faith of her followers, and refused to 
gratify their curiosity by trying the experi- 
ment. Nor did she succeed in her attempt 
to raise from the dead one Mistress Susanna 
Potter, the daughter of Judge Potter, who 
died during Jemima’s residence at the Abbey. 
She managed, however, to satisfy fully her 
followers by foretelling events, interpreting 
dreams, and penetrating secrets, which she 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. If. 


worded by ingeniously mystic and easily ap- 
plicable terms. 

Her meetings and her converts were not 
confined to Rhode Island. In southern 
Massachusetts and Connecticut many joined 
her band. In New Milford, Conn., her con- 
verts erected a meeting-house. In 1782 she 
started out upon a new mission. With a 
small band of her disciples she went to 
Philadelphia, where she was cordially re- 
ceived and entertained by the Quakers. In 
Worcester, Pa., her reception was enthu- 
siastic. Scarce a diary of those times but 
contains some allusion to her or her career. 
In the journal of Jacob Hiltzeheimer, of 
Philadelphia, I read :— 


Aug. 15, 1783. Returning from church, I ob- 
served people crowded about the Free Quakers 
meeting-house, and was told they were waiting 
to see the wonderful Jemima Wilkinson who had 
preached. I remained till she came out to get 
in her chair. She had on a white hat but no cap, 
and a white linen garment that covered her to 
herdteet. 

Aug. 20, 1783. Went to the new Quaker 
meeting-house on Arch Street to hear Jemima 


178 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Wilkinson preach. She looks more like a man 
than a woman. 

May 22, 1788. I rode out to Cunninghams 
Centre House to hear the famous Jemima Wil- 
kinson preach, and in the room where formerly a 
billiard table stood I saw and heard her. She 
spoke much in the New England dialect. She 
appeared to be about twenty-five years of age, 
her hair was dressed like that of a man, and she 
wore a black gown after the fashion of church 
ministers. 


The manuscript diary of the Reverend 
John Pitman, ;ot ):Providence Rial esayer 
“Saw that poor deluded creature Jemima 
Wilkerson and a number of her dull followers 
standing staring at the cross-roads.” 

In the days of reaction after the excite- 
ment of the Revolution, many aspirations 
for a better social state prompted settlements 
in outlying portions of the Central States. 
Communities were founded, Utopias were 
planned, and soon the united body of people 
known as the Friend’s followers decided to 
seek in the depths of the wilderness a new 
home. It was a bold undertaking, but the 
band had a bold commander, and above all, 
they were absolute in their confidence in her. 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. 179 


In no way was that confidence shown so re- 
markably as in the fact that the settlement 
was made for her but without her. The 
three delegates sent to find a place suitable 
for their purpose reported in favor of the 
region at the foot of Seneca Lake in the 
State of New York. In 1788 the settlement 
was made on the west shore of the lake by 
twenty-five persons, on the primitive high- 
way of the region, about a mile south of 
Dresden, and it was named Jerusalem. 

For over two years a band of determined 
believers labored in this wilderness to pre- 
pare a home for their leader, who was com- 
fortably carrying on her triumphant and 
flattering progress in the large cities. Sur- 
rounded by Indians, and menaced by wild 
beasts, they cleared the forests, and planted 
wheat, and lived on scant food. During the 
first year one family for six weeks had only 
boiled nettles and bohea tea for nourishment. 
When the cornfields yielded the second sum- 
mer, a small grist-mill was built with incredi- 
ble labor. When the well-fed and not at all 
over-worked Friend arrived, she found an 
orderly, industrious community of two hun- 
dred and sixty persons, who had built for 


180 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


her a home and a meeting-house, and she 
at once settled down in comparative comfort 
in the midst of her flock. 

The house which was occupied by the 
Friend was a log-house of humble preten- 
sions; to this two or three houses were 
added, then upper stories were placed over 
all, and framed in. It stood in a fine garden, 
and by its side was a long building used as a 
workshop for the women of the settlement, 
where spinning, weaving, and sewing were 
constantly carried on. Near by stood the 
sugar grove, a most lucrative possession of 
the society. From this home the Friend 
and her steadfast followers would ride in 
imposing cavalcade, two by two, to meeting 
at the early settlement. With their hand- 
some; broad-brimmed hats, substantial clothes, 
and excellent horses, they made a most not- 
able and impressive appearance. Her sec- 
ond house was more pretentious and compar- 
atively luxurious ; in it she lived till the time 
of her death. 

Jemima Wilkinson’s followers were of no 
poor or ordinary stock. Many brought to 
her community considerable wealth. Into 
the wilderness went with her from Kings- 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. I8I 


town, R. IL, Judge William Potter and his 
daughters; a family of wealthy Hazards; 
Captain James Parker (brother of Sir Peter 
Parker) ; four Reynelds sisters from a family 
of dignity; Elizabeth Luther and seven chil- 
dren; members of the Card, Hunt, Sherman, 
and Briggs families. From New Milford, 
Conn., emigrated a number of Stones and 
Botsfords, and from New Bedford many mem- 
bers of the influential Hathaway and Law- 
rence families. From Stonington and New 
London went a large number of Barneses 
and Browns and Davises ; from Philadelphia 
the entire family of Malins and the Sup- 
plees ; from Worcester, Pa., came a most im- 
portant recruit, Daniel Wagener, with his 
sister, and Jonathan Davis, and other well- 
to-do and influential persons. 

The most important converts to belief in 
her doctrines, and pioneers for her, were 
doubtless Judge Potter and Captain Parker, 
both men of large wealth and unstinted lib- 
erality to their leader. The former had been 
treasurer of the State of Rhode Island; the 
latter had been also a magistrate for twenty 
years in the same State. They were the 
largest contributors to the fund for the pur- 


182 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


chase of the tract of land in New York. 
These men sacrificed home and friends to 
come to the New Jerusalem with their adored 
priestess ; but they quickly escaped from her 
sway, and became in later years her most 
powerful enemies. They even issued a com- 
plaint against her for blasphemy. The offi- 
cer who tried to serve the warrant upon her 
was unable to seize the Friend, who was an 
accomplished rider and well mounted, and, 
when he went to her house, was roughly 
treated and driven away. John Lawrence, 
whose wife was Anna Hathaway, was a near 
relative of Commodore Lawrence; he was a 
shipbuilder at New Bedford, and, though he 
followed Jemima Wilkinson to Seneca Lake, 
never joined her society. Many of her be- 
lievers never lived in her settlement, but vis- 
ited her there; and many bequeathed to her 
liberally by will, and made valuable gifts to 
her during their life. 

In the main, the influence of this remark- 
able woman continued unabated with a large 
number of her followers throughout her life, 
and even after her death. This power sur- 
vived against the adverse conditions of fre- 
quent litigations, personal asperities, con- 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. 183 


stant injurious reports, and the dislike of 
many to the strictness of her faith and aus- 
terity of life required by her from her follow- 
ers. This allegiance could hardly have been 
founded solely on religious credulity, but 
must have depended largely in her attractive 
personal traits, her humanity, and doubtless 
also to her attractive expositions of her lively 
imagination. To the last she persisted in 
calling herself by the sole name of the Uni- 
versal Friend. Even her will was signed 
thus: “I, the person once called Jemima 
Wilkinson, but in and ever since the year 
1777 known as and called the Public Univer- 
sal Friend, hereunto set my name and seal ; 
Public Universal Friend.” But she cannily 
appended a sub-signature over a cross-mark 
of the name of her youth. 

A remarkable feature of the Universal 
Friend’s Society, perhaps the most remark- 
able effect of her teachings, was the large 
number of excellent women who, as _ per- 
sistent celibates, adhered to her teachings 
throughout their lives. Some lived in her 
house, and all were consistent representa- 
tives of her doctrines, and many lived to 
great old age. Nor can I doubt from the 


184 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


accounts of their lives that they were ex- 
ceedingly happy in their celibacy and in 
their unwavering belief in Jemima Wilkin- 
son. Carlyle says, “Man’s gullibility is not 


”) 


his worst blessing.” I may paraphrase his 
assertion thus —woman’s gullibility is one 
of her most comforting traits. Her persist- 
ent belief, her unswerving devotion, often to 
wholly unworthy objects, brings its own re- 
ward in a lasting, though unreasoning satis- 
faction. 

Jemima’s male adherents were nearly all 
married. Jt was her intention that her prop- 
erty, which was considerable, should be held 
for the benefit of her followers who survived 
her, but it was gradually transferred and 
wasted till the last aged members of the 
band were forced to depend upon the charity 
of neighbors and the public. 

One of the best accounts of the personal- 
ity of Jemima Wilkinson was given by the 
Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, who 
visited her in 1796. He says :— 


We saw Jemima and attended her meeting, 
which is held in her own house. Jemima stood 
at the door of her bed chamber on a carpet, with 
an armchair behind her. She had on a white 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. 185 


morning gown and a waistcoat such as men wear 
and a petticoat of the same color. Her black 
hair was cut short, carefully combed and divided 
behind into three ringlets; she wore a stock and 
a white silk cravat, which was tied about her neck 
with affected negligence. In point of delivery 
she preached with more ease than any other 
Quaker I have ever heard, but the subject matter 
of her discourse was an eternal repetition of the 
same subjects — death, sin and repentance. She 
is said to be about forty years of age but did 
not appear more than thirty. She is of middle 
stature, well made, of florid countenance, and 
has fine teeth and beautiful eyes. Her action is 
studied. She aims at simplicity but is pedantic 
in her manner. Her hypocrisy may be traced in 
all her discourse, actions and conduct and even 
in the very manner which she manages her coun- 
tenance. 

He speaks with much asperity of her pre- 
tence of condemning earthly enjoyment while 
her whole manner of living showed much per- 
sonal luxury and gratification. 

This description of her was given by one 
who saw her :— 

She was higher than a middle stature, of fine 


form, fair complexion with florid cheeks, dark 
and brilliant eyes, and beautiful white teeth. 


186 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Her hair dark auburn or black, combed from the 
seam of the head and fell on her shoulders in 
three full ringlets. In her public addresses she 
would rise up and stand perfectly still for a min- 
ute or more, than proceed with a slow and dis- 
tinct enunciation. She spoke with great ease 
and increased fluency; her voice clear and har- 
monious, and manner persuasive and emphatic. 
Her dress rich but plain and in a style entirely 
her own; a*broad brimmed beaver hat with a 
low crown, and the sides when she rode turned 
down and tied under her chin; a full light drab 
cloak or mantle and a unique underdress; and a 
cravat round the neck with square ends that fell 
down to the waist forward. 


The square cravat or band gave her a semi- 
clerical look. The rich glossy smoothness 
and simplicity of dressing her hair is com- 
mented on by nearly all who left accounts of 
her personal appearance ; and was doubtless 
more marked in her day because the femi- 
nine headdress of that time was elaborate 
to a degree that was even fantastic, and was 
at the opposite extreme from simple curls. 

Many scurrilous and absurd stories are 
told of her, especially in a biography of her 
which was written and printed soon after 


THE UNIVERSAL FRIEND. 187 


her death. Many of the anecdotes in this 
biography are too petty and too improbable 
to be given any credence. I am convinced 
that she was a woman of most sober and 
discreet life; importunate of respect and 
greedy of absolute power; personally luxu- 
rious in her tastes, and of vast ambition, but 
always of dignified carriage. And through 
her dignity, sobriety, and reserve she had a 
lasting hold upon her followers. Perhaps 
she told her alleged belief, her tale of her 
mission, until she half believed it herself. 
One story of her is worthy repetition, and I 
think of credence. 

It tells of her repulse when she endeav- 
ored to secure among her followers the In- 
dians of Canandaigua. Shespoke to them at 
Canandaigua and again at Seneca Lake, evi- 
dently realizing fully the advantage that 
might be gained from them through land- 
grants and personal support. Many of the 
Oneida Indians had been converted by mis- 
sionaries to Christianity, and as they held a 
Sunday service she entered and made a 
thrilling and impressive address, assuring 
them she was their Saviour Jesus Christ. 
They listened to her with marked attention, 


188 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


and one of their number arose and delivered 
a short and animated speech to his com- 
panions in the Oneida tongue. When he 
ceased speaking, Jemima turned to the inter- 
preter and asked an explanation of the 
speaker’s words, which was given her. The 
Indian speaker sat by her side with a sar- 
donic expression on his grim face, and when 
the interpretation was finished, said signifi- 
cantly and coldly, “You no Jesus Christ — 
he know all poor Indian say as well as what 
white man say,’ and turned contemptuously 
from her. It is said that the cunning In- 
dian detective was the great chief Red 
Jacket, and from what we know 
of his shrewd and diplo- 
matic character it can 
readily be be- 
lieved. 


CHAPTER VIII. 
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 


OTHING can more plainly show the 
regard in which women were held in 
Virginia in the middle of the eighteenth 
century than the entries in the accounts of 
Colonel William Byrd of his visits to Vir- 
ginia homes. He was an accomplished and 
cultivated gentleman, who wrote with much 
intelligence and power when relating his 
interviews with men, or discussing what 
might be termed masculine subjects, but 
who revealed his opinion of the mental ca- 
pacity of the fair sex by such side glimpses 
as these: “We supped about nine and then 
prattled with the ladies.” ‘Our conversa- 
tion with the ladies was like whip-syllabub, 
very pretty but nothing in it.” He also 
makes rather coarse jokes about Miss Thekky 
and her maiden state, which was of course 
most deplorable in his and every one else’s 
eyes; and he alludes disparagingly to Mrs. 


190 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Chiswell as ‘one of those absolute rarities, 
avery good old woman.”” The Virginia wo- 
men are said by other authors of that day to 
have been “ bounteous in size and manner.” 
M. Droz wrote of them :— 


Most of the women are quite pretty and in- 
Sinuating in their manner if they find you so. 
When you ask them if they would like to have 
husbands they reply with a good grace that it is 
just what they desire. 


For many years an epidemic ef sentimen- 
tality and mawkishness seemed to everywhere 
prevail in America, and indeed everywhere 
among English-speaking peoples, and seemed 
also to be universally admired. The women 
in America were, as Doctor Shippen wrote, 
‘“languishingly sweet.” This insipidity per- 
vaded the letters of the times, it showed in 
all the diaries and journals that record con- 
versations. Long and vapid discourses on 
love and matrimony and “ Platonicks”’ were 
held even between comparative strangers. 
Even so sprightly and intelligent a journal- 
ist as Sally Wister records her exceedingly 
flippant conversation with young officers of 
new acquaintance, who, within a few hours of 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 191 


introduction, suggested matrimony and love 
and kisses, and punctuated their remarks 
with profanity, which they “declared was 
their favorite vice.” 

William Black, a most observant traveller, 
wrote of Philadelphia girls in 1744 :— 


One of the ladies began a discourse on love 
wherein she pull’d the other Sex to pieces. Set- 
ting forth the Constancy of their Sex and the 
Unstability of ours. Every one of the young 
ladies put in an Oar and helped her Out ; at last 
being quite tired of the Subject and ata Loss 
what more to say the Lady that begun it turned 
from it artfull enough to Criticizing on Plays and 
their Authors, Addison, Otway, Prior, Congreve, 
Dryden, Pope, Shakespere &c were named often 
in Question; the words Genius and no Genius, 
Invention, Poetry, Fine things, bad Language, 
no Style, Charming writing, Imagary and Diction, 
with many more Expressions which swim on the 
surface of Criticism seemed to have been caught 
by the Female Fishers for the Reputation of Wit. 


Though William Black was willing to talk 
of * Love and Platonicks,”’ and with warm 
approval, he was bitter in his rebuke of this 
“Fine Lady Mrs Talkative” who dared to 
speak of books and authors. 


192 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


It is well to note the books read by these 
young ladies in high life, and their critical 
opinion of them. A much-liked book was 
named Zhe Generous Inconstant. It has 
vanished from our modern view. I should 
really like to see the book that rejoiced in 
such a title. We can also learn of the books 
read by Lucinda the “ Young lady of Vir- 
ginia”’ and her friend Polly Brent. Lucin- 
da’s journal was written during a visit to the 
Lees, Washingtons, Grymes, Spotswoods, 
and other first families of Virginia, and has 
been preserved till our own day. She thus 
records : — 


I have spent the morning in reading Lady 
Julia Mandeville, and was much affected. In- 
deed I think I never cried more in my life read- 
ing a Novel; the Stile is beautiful, but the tale 
is horrid. Some one just comes to tell us Mr 
Masenbird and Mr Spotswood is come. We 
must go down, but I am affraid both Sister’s and 
my eyes will betray us. 

Mrs. A. Washington has lent me a new Novel 
called Victoria. I cant say I admire the Tale, 
though I think it prettyly Told. There is a 
Verse in it I wish you much to read. I believe 
if I ant too Lazy I will copy it off for you; the 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 193 


verse is not very beautifull but the sense is I 
assure you. 

I have been very agreeably entertained this 
evening reading a Novel called Malvern Dale. 
It is something like Evelina, though not so pretty. 
I have a piece of advice to give which I have be- 
fore urged, that is to read something improving. 
Books of instruction will be a thousand times 
more pleasing (after a little while) than all the 
novels in the World. I own myself I am too 
fond of Novel-reading; but by accustoming my- 
self to reading other Books I have become less 
so. I have entertained myself all day reading 
Telemachus. It is really delightful and very im- 
proving. 

I have for the first time in my life just read 
Pope’s Eloiza. I had heard my Polly extol it 
frequently, and curiosity led me to read it. I will 
give you my opinion of it; the Poetry I think 
butifull, but do not like some of the sentiments. 
Some of Eloizas is too Amorous for a Female I 
think. 


Sally Wister, a girl of fifteen, had brought 
to her what she called ‘‘a charming collec- 
tion of books,’ — Caroline Melmoth, some 
Lady's Magazines, Fultet Grenville and “ Joe 
Andrews”? —this, Fielding’s Joseph An- 
drews, I suppose. 


194, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


The sensible and intelligent Eliza Lucas 
wrote in 1742, when she was about twenty- 
one years old, with much critical discrimina- 
tion on what she read : — 


I send by the bearer the last volume of Pamela. 
She is a good girl and as such I love her dearly, 
but I must think her very defective, and even 
blush for her while she allows herself that dis- 
gusting liberty of praising herself, or what is very 
like it, repeating all the fine speeches made to her 
by others, — when a person distinguished for mod- 
esty in every other respect should have chosen 
rather to conceal them, or at least let them come 
from some other hand; especially as she might 
have considered those high compliments might 
have proceeded from the partiality of her friends, 
or with a view to encourage her and make her 
aspire after those qualifications which are ascribed 
to her, which I know experimentally to be often 
the case. But then you answer, she was a young 
country girl, had seen nothing of life, and it was 
natural for her to be pleased with praise, and she 
had not art enough to conceal it. ‘True, before 
she was Mrs. B. it was excusable when only wrote 
to her father and mother, but after she had the 
advantage of Mr B’s conversation, and others of 
sense and distinction, I must be of another opin- 
ion. But here arises a difficulty — we are to be 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 195 


made acquainted by the author of all particulars ; 
how then is it to be done? I think by Miss 
Durnford or some other lady very intimate with 
Mrs B. How you smile at my presumption for 
instructing one so far above my own level as the 
author of Pamela (whom I esteem much for the 
regard he pays to virtue and religion) but con- 
tract your smile into a mortified look for I acquit 
the author. He designed to paint no more than 
a woman, and he certainly designed it as a reflec- 
tion upon the vanity of our sex that a character 
so complete in every other instance should be so 
defective in this. Defective indeed when she 
sometimes mentions that poor creature Mr H’s 
applauses it puts me in mind of the observation 
in Don Quixote, how grateful is praise even from 
a madman. 

A most popular form of literary inter- 
course and amusement was everywhere 
found in stilted sentimental correspondence, 
conducted often under assumed and _ high- 
sounding names, usually classical. For in- 
stance, this young lady of Virginia writes to 
her friend, plain Polly, when separated for a 
short time :— 

Oh my Marcia how hard is our fate! that we 
should be deprived of your dear company, when 
it would compleat our Felecity — but such is the 


196 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


fate of Mortals! We are never permitted to be 
perfectly happy. I suppose it is all right, else 
the Supreme Disposer of all things would have 
not permitted it, we should perhaps have been 
more neglectful than we are of our duty. 


She frequently forgets to use the pomp- 
ous name of Marcia, especially when writ- 
ing on any subject that really interests 
her :— 


You may depend upon it Polly this said Matri- 
mony alters us mightily. I am afraid it alienates 
us from every one else. It is I fear the ban of 
Female Friendship. Let it not be with ours 
Polly if we should ever Marry. Farewell my 
love, may Heaven shower blessings on your head 
prays your Lucinda. (I always forget to make 
use of our other name.) 


Even so sensible and intelligent a woman 
as Abigail Adams corresponded under the 
names Diana or Portia, while her friends 
masqueraded as Calliope, Myra, Aspasia, and 
Aurelia. Wives wrote to their husbands, 
giving them fanciful or classical names. 
This of course was no new fashion. Did 
not Shakespeare write : — 


Adoptedly — as school-maids change their name 
By vain though apt affection. 


LIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 197 


It is evident that in spite of all the out- 
ward dignity shown in these pompous forms 
of address, and in a most ceremonial and re- 
served bearing in public, there existed in 
private life much rudeness of demeanor and 
much freedom in manner. Let me quote 
again from the vivacious pages of the young 
lady of Virginia :— 

The Gentlemen dined today at Mr Massinbirds. 
We have supped, and the gentlemen are not re- 
turned yet. Lucy and myself are in a peck of 
troubles for fear they should return drunk.  Sis- 
ter has had our bed moved in her room. Just 
as we were undress’d and going to bed the Gen- 
tlemen arrived, and we had to scamper. Both 
tipsy ! 

Today is Sunday. Brother was so worsted by 
the frolick yesterday, we did not set off today. 
Mr C. Washington returned today from Freder- 
icksburg. You cant think how rejoiced Hannah 
was, nor how dejected in his absence she always 
is. You may depend upon it Polly this said 
Matrimony alters us mightely. Hannah and my- 
self were going to take a long walk this evening 
but were prevented by the two Horred Mortals 
Mr Pinkard and Mr Washington, who siezed and 
kissed me a dozen times in spite of all the resist- 
ance I could make. They really think, now 


198 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


they are married, they are prevaliged to do any- 
Ehime) web 

When we got here we found the house pretty 
full. I had to dress in a great hurry for dinner. 
We spent the evening very agreeably in chatting. 
Milly Washington is a thousand times prettyer 
than I thought her at first and very agreeable. 
About sunset Nancy, Milly and myself took a 
walk in the Garden (it is a most beautiful place). 
We were mighty busy cutting thistles to try our 
sweethearts, when Mr Washington caught us; 
and you cant conceive how he plagued us — 
chased us all over the Garden and was quite 
impertinent. I must tell you of our frolic after 
we went to our room. We took a large dish of 
bacon and beef; after that, a bowl of Sago 
cream; and after that an apple-pye. While we 
were eating the apple-pye in bed— God bless 
you, making a great noise —in came Mr Wash- 
ington dressed in Hannah’s short gown and peti- 
coat, and seazed me and kissed me twenty times, 
in spite of all the resistance I could make; and 
then Cousin Molly. Hannah soon followed 
dressed in his Coat. They joined us in eating 
the apple-pye and then went out. After this we 
took it into our heads to want to eat oysters. We 
got up, put on our rappers and went down in the 
Seller to get them ; do you think Mr Washington 
did not follow us and scear us just to death. We 


EIGHTEENTA-CENTURY MANNERS. 199 


went up tho, and eat our oysters. We slept in 
the old ladys room too, and she sat laughing fit 
to kill herself at us. 


Now, these were no folk of low degree. 
The lively and osculatory Mr. Washington 
was Corbin Washington. He married Han- 
nah, daughter of Richard Henry Lee. Their 
grandson, John A. Washington, was the last 
of the family to occupy Mount Vernon. Mr. 
Pinkard also had a delicate habit of “ bolting 
in upon us, and overhearing part of our con- 
veasation in our rooms, which hily delighted 
him,” trying to seize the girls’ letters, dress- 
ing in women’s clothes, and other manly and 
gentlemanly pleasantries. 

Sarah Eve records in her journal an 
equally affectionate state of manners in Phil- 
adelphian society in 1722. She writes :— 


“In the morning Dr Shippen came to see us. 
What a pity it is that the Doctor is so fond of 
kissing. He really would be much more agree- 
/ able if he were less fond. One hates to be 
always kissed, especially as it is attended with 
sO many inconveniences. It decomposes the 
economy of ones handkerchief, it disorders ones 
high roll, and it ruffles the serenity of ones coun- 


“tenance. 


200 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Though there was great talk made of gal- 
lant and chivalric bearing toward the ladies, 
it is evident that occasional rudeness of man- 
nerestil existed! otAnwritens mete eieaya 
Gazette of August 16, 1780, thus complains 
of New York swains : — 


As the Mall seems to be the chief resort for 
company of an evening I am surprized that there 
is no more politeness and decorum observ’d by 
the masculine gender. In short there is seldom 
a seat in that agreeable walk that is not taken 
up by the gentlemen. This must be very dis- 
agreeable to the fair sex in general whose ten- 
der delicate limbs may be tired with the fa- 
tigues of walking, and bend, denied a seat to rest 
them. 


I cannot discover that anything of the 
nature of our modern chaperonage was 
known in colonial days. We find the early 
travellers such as Dunton taking many a 
long ride with a fair maid a-pillion back be- 
hind them. In 1750 Captain Francis Goelet 
made a trip through New England. He con- 
sorted only with the fashionable folk of the 
day, and he appeared to find in them a very 
genial and even countrified simplicity of 
manners. .He tells of, riding to ‘*Durtle 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 201 


Frolicks”’ and country dances with young 
ladies of refinement and good station in life. 
To one of the finer routs at Cambridge he 
rode with Miss Betty Wendell in a chaise. 
There were twenty couples in all who went 
to this Frolick, all, he says complacently, the 
“Best Fashion in Boston.’”’ Young men 
escorted young girls to dancing-parties, and 
also accompanied them home after the dance 
was finished. 

Weddings were everywhere, throughout 
the middle and southern colonies, scenes of 
great festivity. 

I have been much interested and amused 
in reading the Diary of Facob Hiltzhetmer, 
of Philadelphia (which has recently been pub- 
lished), to note his references to the deep 
drinking at the weddings of the day. One 
enti one Hebruary (1401767, runs) \thus:: 
“ At noon went to William Jones to drink 
punch, met several of my friends and got 
decently drunk. The groom could not be 
accused of the same fault.” This cheerful 
frankness reminds us of Sir Walter Raleigh’s 
similar ingenuous expression: ‘‘ Some of our 
captains garoused of wine till they were rea- 
sonable pleasant.” 


202 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


This Wiliam Jones was married eighteen 
years later to a third wife, and again kept 
open house, and once more friend Jacob 
called on the bride and ate the wedding-cake 
and drank the wedding-punch. Nay, more, 
he called four days in succession, and at the 
end “rode all the afternoon to wear off the 
effects of the punch and clear my head.” 
At one bride’s house, Mrs. Robert Erwin’s, 
record was kept that for two days after the 
wedding, between three and four hundred 
gentlemen had called, drank punch, and prob- 
ably kissed the bride. 

It was the universal Philadelphia custom 
for the groom’s friends to call thus for two 
days at his house and drink punch, and every 
evening for a week large tea-parties were 
given by the bride, the bridesmaids and 
groomsmen always in attendance. Some- 
times a coaching trip was taken by the en- 
tire bridal party out on the Lancaster pike, 
for a wedding breakfast. 

Similar customs prevailed in New York. 
In a letter written by Hannah Thompson I 
read of bridal festivities in that town. 

The Gentlemans Parents keep Open house 
just in the same manner as the Brides Parents. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 203 


The Gentlemen go from the Bridegroom house 
to drink punch with and give Joy to his Father. 
The Brides visitors go in the same manner from 
the Brides to her mothers to pay their compli- 
ments to her. There is so much driving about 
at these times that in our narrow streets there 
is some danger. The Wedding house resembles 
a beehive. Company perpetually flying in and 
out. 


In a new country, with novel methods of 
living, and unusual social relations, there 
were some wild and furious wooings. None 
were more coarsely extraordinary than the 
courting of young Mistress Burwell by the 
Governor of the colony of Virginia, an in- 
temperate, blustering English ruffian named 
Nicholson. He demanded her hand in an 
Orientally autocratic manner, and when nei- 
ther she nor her parents regarded him with 
favor, his rage and determination knew no 
bounds. He threatened the lives of her 
father and mother “with mad furious dis- 
tracted speech.’ When Parson Fouace 
came, meekly riding to visit poor Mr. Bur- 
well, his parishioner, who was sick (naturally 
enough), the Governor set upon him with 
words of abuse, pulled the clerical hat off, 


204, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


drew his sword, and threatened the clerical 
life, until the parson fled in dismay. Fancy- 
ing that the brother of Commissary Blair, 
the President of the Virginia College, was a 
would-be suitor to his desired fair one, he 
assailed the President with insane jealousy, 
saying, “ Sir, your brother is a villain and you 
have betrayed me,” and he swore revenge 
on the entire family. To annoy further the 
good President, he lent his pistols to the 
wicked college boys that they might thus 
keep the President out of the ‘college build- 
ings. He vowed if Mistress Burwell mar- 
ried any one but himself he would cut the 
throat of bridegroom, minister, and justice 
who issued the marriage license. The noise 
of his abuse reached England, and friends 
wrote from thence protesting letters to him. 
At last the Council united and succeeded in 
procuring his removal. Poor President Blair 
did not fare well under other governors, and 
both College and President were fiercely 
hated by Governor Andros ; and “a sparkish 
young gentleman,” the grandfather of Mar- 
tha Washington’s first husband, to show his 
zeal for his gubernatorial friend, went into 
church and “with great fury and violence” 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANNERS. 205 


pulled Mrs. Blair out of her pew in the face 
of the minister and the whole congregation 
— and this in the stately old cavalier days. 

One very curious duty devolved on young 
girls at that day. They often served as 
pall-bearers. At the funeral of Mrs. Daniel 
Phoenix the pall-bearers were women, and 
when Mrs. John Morgan, sister of Francis 
Hopkinson, died in Philadelphia, her brother 
wrote of her funeral : — 

The morning was snowy and severely cold, 
and the walking very dangerous and slippery, 
never the less a number of respectable citizens 
attended the funeral and the pall was borne by 
the first ladies of the place. 

Sarah Eve, in her diary, writes in 1772, in 
a somewhat flippant manner: “R. Rush, P. 
Dunn, K. Vaughan, and myself carried Mr. 
Ash’s child to be buried ; foolish custom for 
girls to prance it through the streets without 
hats or bonnets!” At the funeral of Fanny 

Durdin in 1812, the girl pall-bearers 
were dressed in white, and 
wore long white 
veils. 


CHAPTER IX. 
THEIR AMUSEMENTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 


F amusements for women in the first 

century of colonial life, we can almost 
say there were none. There was in New 
England no card-playing, no theatre-going, 
no dancing. The solemn Thursday lecture 
was the sole mid-week gathering. Occasion- 
ally there was the excitement of Training 
Day. In the South the distances were too 
great from plantation to plantation for fre- 
quent friendly meetings. As time went on, 
cooperation in gathering and storing the 
various food-harvests afforded opportunities 
for social intercourse. Apple-parings and 
corn-huskings were autumnal delights, but 
when these were over, the chafing youth 
found no recreations through the long, snowy 
months in country homes, and but scant op- 
portunity for amusement in town. No won- 
der that they turned eagerly to the singing- 
school, and found in that innocent gathering 


HEIR AMUSEMENT SLC. 207 


a safety-valve for the pent-up longing for 
diversion which burned in young souls then 
as now. We can but wonder how, ere the 
singing-school became a force, young New 
Englanders became acquainted enough with 
each other to think of marriage; and we 
can almost regard the establishment of the 
study of fugue and psalm singing as the 
preservation of the commonwealth. 

In Virginia the different elements of life 
developed characteristic pastimes, and by the 
first quarter of the eighteenth century there 
were opportunities of diversion offered for 
women. 

We have preserved to us an exact ac- 
count of the sports which were enjoyed by 
both Virginian men and women. It may be 
found in the Virginza Gazette for October, 


YR aoe 


We have advices from Hanover County that 
on St Andrews Day there are to be Horse Races 
and several other Diversions for the entertain- 
ment of the Gentlemen and Ladies, at the Old 
Field, near Captain John Bickertons, in that 
County if permitted by the Hon Wm Byrd Esq 
Proprietor of said land, the substance of which 
is as follows viz: 


208 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


It is proposed that 20 Horses or Mares do run 
around a three mile course for a prize of five 
pounds. 

That a Hat of the value of 20s be cudgelled 
for, and that after the first challenge made the 
Drums are to beat every Quarter of an hour for 
three challenges round the Ring and none to 
play with their Left hand. 

That a violin be played for by 20 Fiddlers ; no 
person to have the liberty of playing unless he 
bring a fiddle with him. After the prize is won 
they are all to play together and each a different 
tune, and to be treated by the company. 

That 12 Boys of 12 years of age do run 112 
yards for a hat of the cost of 12 shillings. 

That a Flag be flying on said Day 30 feet high. 

That a handsome entertainment be provided 
for the subscribers and their wives; and such of 
them as are not so happy as to have wives may 
treat any other lady. 

That Drums Trumpets Hautboys &c be pro- 
vided to play at said entertainment. 

That after Dinner the Royal Health His Honor 
the Governor’s &c are to be drunk. 

That a Quire of Ballads be sung for by a num- 
ber of Songsters, all of them to have liquor suf- 
ficient to clear their Wind Pipes. 

That a pair of Silver Buckles be wrestled for 
by a number of brisk young men. 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 209 


That a pair of handsome Shoes be danced for. 

That a pair of handsome Silk Stockings of one 
Pistole value be given to the handsomest young 
country maid that appears in the field. 

With many other whimsical and Comical Diver- 
sions too numerous to mention. 

And as this mirth is designed to be purely 
innocent and void of offence, all persons resort- 
ing there are desired to behave themselves with 
decency and sobriety; the subscribers being 
resolved to discountenance all immorality with 
the utmost rigor. 


There is a certain rough and noisy hearti- 
ness in this rollicking Racing Day in old 
Virginia that speaks of boisterous cheer akin 
to the days of “merrie England,” and which 
seems far from disagreeable when contrasted 
with the dull yearly round of sober days in 
New England. Virginia and Maryland men 
had many social clubs “to promote innocent 
mirth and ingenious humour,” but of course 
within these clubs their consorts and daugh- 
ters were not guests. A ball or a country 
dance were the chief amusements of South- 
ern women, and very smart functions some 
of these balls were, though they did begin in 
broad daylight. 


210 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


An early account was given by a travel- 
ling Virginian, William Black, of a Govern- 
ment Ball in the Council Room at Annapo- 
lis in 1744. 


The Ladies of Note made a Splendant Ap- 
pearance. In a Room Back from where they 
Danc’d was Several Sorts of Wines, Punch and 
Sweetmeats. In this Room those that was not 
engaged in any Dancing Match might better 
employ themselves at Cards, Dice, Backgammon, 
or with a cheerful Glass. The Ladies were so 
very agreeable and seem’d so intent on Dancing 
that one might have Imagin’d they had some 
Design on the Virginians, either Designing to 
make Tryal of their Strength and Vigour, or to 
convince them of their Activity and Sprightli- 
ness. After several smart engagements in which 
no advantage on either side was Observable, with 
a mutual Consent about 1 of the Clock in the 
Morning it was agreed to break up, every Gen- 
tleman waiting on his Partner home. 


The metnod in which a ball was con- 
ducted somewhat more than a century ago 
in Louisville was thus told by Maj. Samuel 


S. Forman, who visited that town as a young 
man. 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, LTC. 211 


After the managers had organized the Com- 
pany by drawing numbers and appointing the 
opening with a Minuet, Uncle was called on and 
introduc’d to a Lady for the opening scene. The 
Managers who distributed the numbers called 
Gent® No.1, he takes his stand — Lady No. 1, 
she rises from her seat, the Manager leads her 
to the floor and introduces Gent® No. 1, & so on 
till the flocr is full. After all the Company have 
been thus call’d out then the Gent® are free to 
seek his Partner but no monopoly. Lady at the 
head chooses the figure, but it is considered out 
of order for one Lady to head a figure twice un- 
less all have been at the head. If there happen 
to be some ladies to whom from mistake or other- 
wise have been passed the Managers duty is to 
see to it. And another Custom was for a Gent? 
to call on a Lady & inform her of an intended 
ball & ask permission to see her to the place & 
see her safe home again. If the Gent® does not 
draw such Lady for the first Contra Dance he 
generally engages her for the first Volunteer. 
At the Refreshments the Gent will by instinct 
without Chesterfieldian monition see that his 
betterhalf (for the time being) has a guantum 
suficit and that without cramming his jaws full 
until he has reconducted her to the ball-room, 
then he is at liberty to absent himself for a while. 
There were two young gentlemen there from 


212 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


New York who were much attached to each 
other. They promised to let each other know 
when a ball was on foot. At one time one came 
to the other and told him to prepare his pumps 
against such an evening. The answer was — 
Pumps out of order, must decline. No Sir that 
will not do. Then Sir you have been buying 
Several pair of handsome Mocassons for New 
York Ladies. If you will lend me one pair & 
you will put on one pair (it wont hurt them) I 
will go. Snaps his fingers —the very thing. The 
next ball after this Moccasons became very fash- 
ionable. So many fashions have their origins 
from Necessity. 


A traveller named Bennet gives us an 
account of the amusements of Boston wo- 
men in the middle of the century, when 
dancing was slowly becoming fashionable. 


For their domestic amusements every after- 
noon after drinking tea, the gentlemen and ladies 
walk the Mall, and from there adjourn to one 
anothers house to spend the evening, those that 
are not disposed to attend the evening lecture 
which they may do if they please six nights in the 
seven the year round. What they call the Mall 
is a walk ona fine green Common adjoining to 
the south east side of the town. The Govern- 


THELTR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 213 


ment being in the hands of dissenters they dont 
admit of plays or music houses ; but of late they 
have sent up an assembly to which some of the 
ladies resort. But they are looked upon to be 
none of the nicest, in regard to their reputation, 
and it is thought it will be soon suppressed for it 
is much taken notice of and exploded by the 
religious and sober part of the people. But 
notwithstanding plays and such like diversions 
do not obtain here, they dont be dispirited or 
moped for the want of them; for both the ladies 
and gentlemen dress and appear as gay in com- 
mon as courtiers in England ona coronation or 
birthday. And the ladies visit here, drink tea, 
indulge in every little piece of gentility to the 
height of the mode, and neglect the affairs of 
the family with as good a grace as the finest 
ladies in London. 


The Marquis de Chastellux writes of the 
Philadelphia assembly in 1780 :— 


The assembly or subscription ball, of which I 
must give an account may here be introduced. 
At Philadelphia, there are places appropriated 
for the young people to dance in and where 
those whom that amusement does not suit may 
play at different games of cards, but at Philadel- 
phia games of commerce are alone allowed. A 
manager or Master of Ceremonies presides at 


214, COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


the methodical amusements; he presents to the 
gentlemen and lady dancers, billets folded up 
containing each a number ; thus fate decides the 
male or female partner for the whole evening. 
All the dances are previously arranged and the 
dancers are called in their turns. ‘These dances, 
like the toasts we drink at table, have some re- 
lation to politics ; one is called The Successful 
Campaign, another Bourgoynes Defeat, a third 
Clintons Retreat. The managers are generally 
chosen from among the most distinguished offi- 
cers of the army. Colonel] Mitchell, a little fat 
squat man, was formerly the manager, but when 
I saw him he had descended from the magistracy 
and danced like a common citizen. He is said 
to have exercised his office with great severity, 
and it is told of him, that a young lady who was 
figuring in a country dance, having forgot her 
turn through conversing with a friend, he came 
up to her and called out aloud, ‘‘ Give over, Miss, 
take care what you are about. Do you think 
you come here for your pleasure ? ” 


The dance, A Successful Campaign, was 
the one selected by diplomatic Miss Peggy 
Champlin to open the ball, when she danced 
in Newport with General Washington, to the 
piping of De Rochambeau and his fellow 
officers. This was “the figure” of A Swuc- 


———EE 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 215 


cessful Campaign. ‘Lead down two couples 
on the outside and up the middle; second 
couple do the same, turn contrary partners, 
cast off, right hand and left.” It was simple, 
was it not — but I doubt not it was dignified 
and of sedate importance when Washington 
footed it. 

Stony Point was another favorite of Revo- 
lutionary days—for did not General Wayne 
successfully storm the place? This dance 
was more difficult ; the directions were some- 
what bewildering. ‘“ First couple three hands 
round with the second lady — allemand. 
Three hands round with the second gentle- 
man —allemand again. Lead down two 
couples, up again, cast off one couple, hands 
round with the third, right and left.” I 
scarcely know what the figure “allemand” 
was. The German allemande was then an 
old style of waltz, slower than the modern 
waltz, but I can scarcely think that Wash- 
ington or any of those serious, dignified offi- 
cers waltzed, even to slow time. 

Another obsolete term is “foot it.” 


Come and foot it as you go 
On the light fantastic toe, 


216 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


seems to refer to some definite step in dan- 
cing. Sheridan in 7he Rivals thus uses the 
term in regard to dances : — 


I’d foot it with e’er a captain in the county, 
but these outlandish heathen allemandes and 
cotillions are quite beyond me. 


But “footing it” and “outlandish heathen 
allemandes” are not so misty as another 
term, ‘“‘to=haze.” In the Jznocent Maid 
they “hazed.” “First three couples haze, 
then lead down the middle and back again, 
close with the right hand and left.” In dan- 
cing the Corszno they figured thus: “ Three 
couples foot it and change sides; foot it 
again and once more change sides; three 
couples allemand, and the first fall in the 
middle then right hand and left.” 

Dancing-masters’ advertisements of those 
days often give us the list of modish dances: 
“ Allemandes Vally’s, De la Cours, Devon- 
shire Minuets and Jiggs.” 

Burnaby in 1759 wrote of a special pleas- 
ure of the Quaker maids of Philadelphia: of 
fishing-parties. 


The women are exceedingly handsome and 
polite. They are naturally sprightly and fond of 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 217 


pleasure and upon the whole are much more 
agreeable and accomplished than themen. Since 
their intercourse with the English officers they 
are greatly improved, and without flattery, many 
of them would not make bad figures even in the 
first assemblies in Europe. Their amusements 
are chiefly dancing in the winter, and in the 
summer forming parties of pleasure upon the 
Schuilkill, and in the country. There is a so- 
ciety of sixteen ladies and as many gentlemen 
called The fishing company, who meet once a 
fortnight upon the Schuilkill. They have a very 
pleasant room erected in a romantic situation 
upon the banks of that river where they gen- 
erally dine and drink tea. There are several 
pretty walks about it, and some wild and rugged 
rocks which together with the water and fine 
groves that adorn the banks, form a most beauti- 
ful and picturesque scene. ‘There are boats and 
fishing tackle of all sorts, and the company 
divert themselves with walking, fishing, going up 
the water, dancing, singing, conversing, or just 
as they please. The ladies wear an uniform and 
appear with great ease and advantage from the 
neatness and simplicity of it. The first and 
most distinguished people of the colony are of 
this society ; and it is very advantageous to a 
stranger to be introduced to it, as he hereby gets 
acquainted with the best and most respectable 


218 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


company in Philadelphia. In the winter when 
there is snow upon the ground it is usual to 
make what they call sleighing parties. 


He says of New York society : — 


The women are handsome and _ agreeable 
though rather more reserved than the Philadel- 
phian ladies. Their amusements are much the 
same as in Pensylvania; viz balls and sleighing 
expeditions in the winter, and in the summer 
going in parties upon the water and fishing; or 
making excursions into the country. ‘There are 
several houses pleasantly situated upon East 
River near New York where it is common to 
have turtle feasts; these happen once or twice 
ina week. Thirty or forty gentlemen and ladies 
meet and dine together, drink tea in the after- 
noon, fish and amuse themselves till evening and 
then return home in Italian chaises, a gentleman 
and lady in each chaise. In the way there isa 
bridge, about three miles distant from New York 
which you always pass over as you return, called 
the Kissing Bridge where it is a part of the eti- 
quette to salute the lady who has put herself 
under your protection. 


It is evident from these quotations and 
from the testimony of other contemporary 
authors that one of the chief winter amuse- 


THETR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 219 


ments in New York and Philadelphia and 
neighboring towns was through sleighing- 
parties. Madam Knights, of Boston, writing 
in 1704 of her visit to New York, said :— 


Their diversion in winter is riding sleighs 
about three or four miles out of town where they 
have houses of entertainment at a place called 
the Bowery, and some go to friends houses, who 
handsomely treat them. Mr. Burroughs carried 
his spouse and daughter and myself out to one 
Madam Dowes a gentlewoman that lived at a 
farmhouse who gave us a handsome entertain- 
ment of five or six dishes and choice beer and 
metheglin, etc, all which she said was the pro- 
duce of her farm. I believe we met fifty or sixty 
sleighs that day; they fly with great swiftness 
and some are so furious that they will turn out 
of the path for none except a loaded cart. 


There were few sleighs at that date in Bos- 
ton. 

Sixty-four years later, in 1768, a young 
English officer, Alexander Macraby, wrote 
thus to his brother of the pleasures of sleigh- 


ing :— 


You can never have had a party in a sleigh or 
sledge I had a very clever one a few days ago. 


220 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Seven sleighs with two ladies and two men in 
each proceeded by fiddlers on horseback set out 
together upon a snow of about a foot deep on 
the roads toa public house, a few miles from town 
where we danced, sung, romped and eat and 
drank and kicked away care from morning till 
night, and finished our frolic in two or three 
side-boxes at the play. You can have no idea 
of the state of the pulse seated with pretty women 
mid-deep in straw, your body armed with furs 
and flannels, clear air, bright sunshine, spotless 
sky, horses galloping, every feeling turned to joy 
and jollity. 


That older members of society then, as 
now, did not find sleighing parties alto- 
gether alluring, we learn from this sentence 
in a letter of Hannah Thompson written to 
John Mifflin in 1786 :— 


This Slaying match Mr Houston of Houston 
St gave his Daughters, Dear Papa, Dear Papa, 
do give us a slaying —he at last consented, told 
them to get ready and dress themselves warm, 
which they accordingly did and came running. 
We are ready papa. He ordered the Servants to 
have some burnt wine against they came back. 
He desir’d them to step upstairs with him be- 
fore they went. As soon as they got in an At- 


LAER AMO SIM EN S520. C. 221 


tick chamber, he threw up all the windows and 
seated them in two old Arm Chairs and began 
to whip and Chirrup with all the Spirit of a 
Slaying party. And after he kept them long 
enough to be sufficiently cold he took them down 
and call’d for the Mulled Wine and they were 
very glad to set close to the Fire and leave Slay- 
ing for those who were too warm. 


This I quote to execrate the memory of 
Mr. Houston and express my sympathy for 
his daughters. 

There were no entertainments more pop- 
ular, from the middle of the past century 
to the early years of this one, than “turtle 
frolics,’ what Burnaby called turtle-feasts. 
Every sea-captain who sailed to the West 
Indies intended and was expected to bring 
home a turtle on the return voyage; and if 
he were only to touch at the West Indies 
and thence pass on to more distant shores, 
he still tried, if possible, to secure a turtle 
and send it home by some returning vessel. 
In no seaport town did the turtle frolic come 
to a higher state of perfection than in New- 
port. Scores of turtles were borne to that 
welcoming shore. In 1752 George Bresett, 
a Newport gentleman, sailed to the West 


222 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Indies, and promptly did a neighborly and 
civic duty by sending home to his friend 
Samuel Freebody, a gallant turtle and a 
generous keg of limes. Lime juice was the_ 
fashionable and favorite “souring” of the 
day, to combine with arrack and Barbadoes 
rum into a glorious punch. The turtle ar- 
rived in prime condition, and Freebody 
handed the prize over to a slave-body named 
Cuffy Cockroach. He was a Guinea Coast 
negro, of a race who were (as I have noted 
before) the most intelligent of all the Afri- 
cans brought as slaves to these shores. Any 
negro who acquired a position of dignity or 
trust or skill in this country, in colonial days, 
was sure to be a Guinea-boy. Cuffy Cock- 
roach followed the rule, by filling a position 
of much dignity and trust and skill—as 
turtle-cook. He was a slave of Jaheel Bren- 
ton, but he cooked turtle for the entire 
town. The frolic was held at Fort George, 
on Goat Island, on December 23. The 
guests, fifty ladies and gentlemen, sailed 
over in a sloop, and were welcomed with 
hoisted flag and salute of cannon. The din- 
ner was served at two, tea at five, and then 
dancing begun. Pea Straw, Faithful Shep- 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 223 


herd, Arcadian Nuptials, were allemanded 
and footed, and the keg of limes and its fel- 
low-ingredients kept pace with the turtle. 
The moon was at the full when the party 
landed at the Newport wharf at eleven, but 
the frolic was not ended. For instead of 
the jolly crowd separating, they went the 
rounds, leaving one member of the party at 
a time at his own door, and then serenading 
him or her, till the whole company had been 
honored in succession. When Sammy wrote 
to Mr. Bresett he said :— 


Upon the whole the entertainment had the 
preference over all turtle frolics before it, and Mr 
George Bresetts health with “ Honest George ” 
was freely drank in a cheerful glass by every per- 
son; and at the request of the company I return 
you their compliments for the foundation of so 
agreeable an entertainment. 


We find even so staid and dignified a min- 
ister and legislator as Manasseh Cutler writ- 
ing thus in Providence in 1787 :— 

This morning I received a polite invitation 
from Govenor Bowen in the name of a large com- 
pany to join them in a Turtle Frolic about six 
miles out of town. Mr Hitchcock and other 
clergymen of the town were of the party but 


224 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


much against my inclination I was obliged to 
excuse myself. 

The traveller who drives through the by- 
roads of New England to-day is almost ready 
to assert that there is no dwelling too poor 
or too lonely to contain a piano, or at the 
very least a melodeon or parlor organ. The 
sounds of Czerny’s exercises issue from every 
farmhouse. There may be no new farm im- 
plements, no sewing-mashine, but there will 
surely be a piano. This love of music has 
ever existed on those rock-bound shores, 
though in early days it found a stunted and 
sad expression in hymn tunes only, and the 
performance of music could scarce be called 
a colonial accomplishment. The first musical 
instruments were martial, drums and fifes 
and hautboys. I have never seen, in any 
personal inventory, the notice of a “git- 
terne”’ as in similar Virginian lists. 

But in the early years of the eighteenth 
century a few spinets must have been ex- 
ported to Boston and Philadelphia, and per- 
haps to Virginia. In 1712 an advertisement 
was placed in the Boston News-Letter that 
the Spinet would be taught, and on April 23, 
1716, appeared in the same paper : — 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 225 


Note that any Persons may have all Instru- 
ments of Music mended or Virginalls or Spinnets 
Strung & Tun’d, at a Reasonable Rate & like- 
wise may be taught to play on any of the Instru- 
ments above mentioned. 


In August, 1740, a ‘‘Good Spinnet” was 
offered for sale, and soon after a second-hand 
“Spinnet,’ and in January, 1750, ‘‘ Spinnet 
wire.” 

On September 18, 1769, this notice ap- 
peared in the Boston Gazette and Country 
Fournal : — 


It is with pleasure that we inform the Public 
that a few days since was ship’d for Newport a 
very Curious Spinnet being the first ever made 
in America, the performance of the ingenious 
Mr. John Harris of Boston (son of the late Mr. 
Jos. Harris of London, Harpsichord and Spinnet 
Maker deceased) and in every respect does honor 
to that Artist who now carries on the Business 
at his house a few doors Northward of Dr. 
Clarkes, North End of Boston. 


This first American spinet is said to be 
still in existence in a house in Newport on 
the corner of Thames and Gidley streets. 
It has one set of jacks and strings. The 
hammers have crow-quills which press on 


226 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


brass strings. It has ancient neighbors. In 
Bristol, R. I., is a triangular spinet four feet 
long, which is more than a century older than 
the town which is now its home. It bears 
this maker’s mark, — “Johann Hitchcock 
fecit London 1520.” If this date is correct, 
it is the oldest spinet known, the one of 
Italian manufacture in the British Museum 
being dated 1521. 

At the rooms of the Essex Institute in 
Salem, Mass., is an old spinet made by Dr. 
Samuel Blyth in that town. Henry M. 
Brooks, Esq., author of Olden Time Music, 
has in his possession a bill for one of these 
American spinets that shows that the price 
in 1786 was 418. In the Memorial Hall at 
Deerfield, Mass., may be seen another di- 
lapidated one, made by Stephanus & Keene. 
This belonged once to Mrs. Sukey Barker, of 
Hingham. 

In the Newport Mercury of May 17, 1773, 
is advertised, “To be sold a Spinnet of a 
proper size for a little miss, and a most agree- 
able tone — plays extremely easy on the keys. 
Inquire of the Printer.” Advertisement of 
the sale of spinets and of instruction on the 
spinet do not disappear from the newspapers 


THER AMUSEMENTSPSETIC. 227 


in this country even after formidable rivals 
and successors, the harpsichord and forte- 
piano, had begun to be imported in compara- 
tively large numbers. 

The tone of a spinet has been character- 
ized concisely by Holmes in his poem, Zhe 
Opening of the Piano, —the “spinet with its 
thin metallic thrills.’ I know of nothing 
more truly the “relic of things that have 
passed away,’ more completely the voice of 
the past, than the tinkling thrill of a spinet. 
It is ike seeing a ghost to touch the keys, 
and bring forth once more that obsolete 
sound. There is no sound born in the nine- 
teenth century that at all resembles it. Like 
“loggerheads”’ in the coals and “lug-poles”’ 
in the chimney, like church lotteries and tith- 
ingmen, the spinet —even its very voice — 
is extinct. 

Since in the Mews-Letter first quoted in 
this chapter virginals are named, I think the 
musical instrument of Queen Elizabeth must 
have been tolerably familiar to Bostonians. 
Judge Sewall, who “had a passion for music,” 
writes in 1690 of fetching his wife’s “ vir- 
ginalls.”” I cannot conceive what tunes 
Madam Sewall played on her virginals, no 


228 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


tawdry ballads and roundelays, no minuets 
and corams; she may have known half a 
dozen long-metre psalm tunes such as the 
Judge set for so many years in meeting. 

“‘Forte-pianers ’’ were imported to Amer- 
ica, aS were other musical instruments. It 
is said the first one brought to New England 
was in 1785 by John Brown for his daughter 
Sarah, afterwards Mrs. Herreshoff. It is 
still possessed by Miss Herreshoff, of Bristol, 
R. I. The first brought to “the Cape” was 
a Clementi of the date 1790, and found for 
many years a home in Falmouth. It is in 
perfect preservation, a dainty little inlaid box 
lying upon a slender low table, with tiny 
shelves for the music books, and a tiny little 
painted rack to hold the music sheets, and a 
pedal’ fit for the foot of a doll. It is now 
owned by Miss Frances Morse, of Worcester, 
Mass. An old Broadwood piano, once owned 
by the venerable Dr. Sweetser, may be seen 
at the rooms of the Worcester Society of 
Antiquity; and still another, a Clementi, at 
the Essex Institute in Salem. 

By the beginning of this century piano- 
playing became a more common accomplish- 
ment, especially in the large towns, though 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 229 


General Oliver said that in 1810, among the 
six thousand families in Boston, there were 
not fifty pianos. Rev. Manasseh Cutler 
writes in 1801, from Washington, of a young 
friend : — 


She has been educated at the best schools in 
Baltimore and Alexandria. She does not con- 
verse much, but is very modest and agreeable. 
She plays with great skill on the Forte Piano 
which she always accompanies with the most 
delightful voice, and is frequently joined in the 
vocal part by her mother. Mr. King has an ex- 
cellent Forte-Piano which is connected with an 
organ placed under it, which she plays and fills 
with her feet, while her fingers are employed upon 
the Forte-Piano. On Sunday evenings she con- 
stantly plays Psalm music. Miss Anna plays 
Denmark remarkably well. But the most of the 
psalm tunes our gentlemen prefer are the old 
ones such as Old Hundred, Canterbury, which 
you would be delighted to hear on the Forte- 
Piano assisted by the Organ. Miss Anna gave 
us some good music this evening, particularly the 
Wayworn Traveller, Ma Chere Amie, The Tea, 
The Twins of Latma (somewhat similar to Indian 
Chief) Eliza, Lucy or Selims Complaint. These 
are among my favourites. 


230 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


In February, 1800, Eliza Southgate Bowne 
wrote thus in Boston :— 

In the morning I am going to look at some 
Instruments ; however we got one picked out that 
I imagine we shall take, 150 dollars, a charming 
toned one and not made in this country. 


In June she said enthusiastically of her 
‘Instrument :’ — 

I am learning my rzth tune Oh Octavia, I 
almost worship my Instrument, — it reciprocates 
my joys and sorrows, and is my bosom compan- 
ion. How TI long to have you return! I have 
hardly attempted to sing since you went away. 
Iam sure I shall not dare to when you return. 
I must enjoy my triumph while you are absent; 
my musical taients will be dim when compared 
with the lustre of yours. 

The. most universal accomplishment of 
colonial women was the making of samplers, 
if, indeed, anything could be termed an ac- 
complishment which was so rigidly and pro- 
saically part of their education. I can well 
imagine the disgrace it would have been to 
any little miss in her teens a century ago not 
to be able to show a carefully designed and 
wrought sampler. On these samplers were 
displayed the alphabet, sometimes in various 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 231 


shaped letters —thus did she learn to mark 
neatly her household linen; bands of conven- 
tional designs, of flowers, of geometrical pat- 
terns — thus was she taught to embroider 
muslin caps and kerchiefs; and there were 
gorgeous flowers and strange buildings, and 
domestic scenes, and pastoral views, birds 
that perched as large as cows, and roses that 
were larger than either; and last and best of 
all (and often of much satisfaction to the 
genealogist), there was her name and her age, 
and sometimes her place of birth, and withal 
a pious verse as a motto for this housewifely 
shield. Of all the relics of old-time life 
which have come to us, none are more inter- 
esting than the samplers. Happily, many of 
them ave come to us; worked with wiry 
enduring crewels and silk on strong linen 
canvas, they speak down through the cen- 
tury of the little, useful, willing hands that 
worked them ; of the tidy sempstresses and 
housewives of those simple domestic days. 
We know little of the daughters of the Pil- 
grims, but Lora Standish has sent to us a 
prim little message of her piety, and a faded 
testimony of her skill, that makes her seem 
dear to us: — 


232 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Lora Standish is My Name. 
Lord Guide my heart that I may do thy Will 
Also fill my hands with such convenient skill 
As will conduce to Virtue void of Shame, 
And I will give the Glory to Thy Name. 


A more ambitious kind of needlework took 
the form of what were known as mourning 
pieces. These were regarded with deepest 
affection, for were they not a token of lov- 
ing remembrance? They bore stiff present- 
ments of funeral urns, with drooping willows, 
or a monument with a bowed and weeping 
figure. Often the names of dead members 
of the family were worked upon the monu- 
ment. A still more ambitious sampler bore 
a design known as The Tree of Life. A 
stiffly branched tree was sparingly hung with 
apples labelled with the names of the virtues 
of humanity, such as Love, Honor, Truth, 
Modesty, Silence. A white-winged angel on 
one side of this tree watered the roots with 
a very realistic watering-pot, and was bal- 
anced with exactness, as were evenly adjusted 
all good embroidery designs of that day, by 
an inky-black Satan who bore a pitchfork of 
colossal proportions and a tail as long as a 
kite’s, and so heavy that he could scarce have 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 233 


dragged it along the ground — much less with 
it have flown. 

For many years a favorite and much 
praised accomplishment was the cutting of 
paper in ornamental designs. This art was 
ambitiously called Papyrotamia, and it was of 
special usefulness in its application to watch- 
papers, a favorite lover's token of the day. 
The watch proper at that time was separate 
and removable from its case, which was of 
gold, silver, shagreen, or lacquer. Of course 
the watch did not fit closely into the case, 
and watch-papers were placed within to serve 
as a cushion to prevent jar and wear; some- 
times the case would hold several. Artistic 
and grotesque taste could be used in the 
manufacture of these tokens of regard. I 
have seen them cut in various open-work de- 
signs from gilt and silver paper, embroidered 
in hair, painted in water colors. One I have 
has two turtle-doves billing over two hearts, 
and surrounded bya tiny wreath; another, 
embroidered on net, has the words “God is 
Love;’’ another has a moss rose and the 
words “ Rejoice and blossom as a rose.”’ An- 
other bears a funeral urn, and is evidently zz 
memoriam. Still another, a heart and arrows, 


234. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


and the sentimental legend “ Kill me for I die 
of love.” Jefferson, writing as a young man, 
bitterly deplores his inadvertent tearing of 
watch-papers which had been cut for him by 
his beloved Belinda. Watch and watch-pa- 
pers had been accidentally soaked in water, 
and when he attempted to remove the pa- 
pers, he says, ‘“‘ My cursed fingers gave them 
such a rent as I fear I shall never get over. 
I would have cried bitterly, but that I 
thought it beneath the dignity of a man.” 
And he trusts the fair Becca will give him 
another paper of her cutting, which, though 
but a plain round one, he will esteem more 
than the nicest in the world cut by other 
hands. 

Nothing can be more pathetic than the 
thoughtful survey of the crude and often 
cumbersome and ludicrous attempts at dec- 
orative art, through which the stunted and 
cramped love of the beautiful found expres- 
sion, until our own day, in country homes. 
The dreary succession of hair-work, feather- 
work, wax flowers, shell-work, the crystalliza- 
tion with various domestic minerals and gums 
of dried leaves and grasses, vied with yarn 
and worsted monstrosities, and bewildering 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 235 


patchwork. Occasionally some bold femi- 
nine spirit, made inventive through artistic 
longing, gave birth to a novel, though too 
often grotesque form of decoration. 

A most interesting symbol of exquisite 
neatness, unbounded patience, and blind 
groping for artistic expression was Rhoda 
Baker's ‘“ Leather-Works.” Rhoda Baker 
lived in a small Rhode Island village, which 
was dull at its birth and slow of growth and 
progress. She had a nature so timid, so 
repelling, and so wholly introspective, that, 
after nearly fifty years of shy and even un- 
willing ‘keeping company” with a preach- 
ing elder of the time, —a saint, almost a 
mystic, — she died without ever having given 
to the quaint, thin, pleasant-faced, awkward 
man, one word of encouragement to his equally 
timid, his hinting and halting love-making. 
During those patient years of warm hopes, 
but most scanty fruition, he had built a 
house on an island which he owned in Nar- 
ragansett Bay, with a window where his be- 
loved Rhoda could sit sewing when she be- 
came his wife, and watch him happily rowing 
across the Bay to her; but great lilac bushes 
grew up unchecked, and shaded and finally 


236 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


hid the window at which Rhoda never sat to 
welcome her husband-lover. After her death 
the Elder so grieved that he had naught to 
remind him and speak to him of his beloved, 
that he boldly decided to name his boat for 
her; but as he could not conscientiously say 
she had ever encouraged him by word or 
look in his incipient love-making, and he 
must be strictly honest and chivalrously re- 
spectful to her memory, he painted upon 
the boat in black letters this truthful yet 
dimly consoling legend, “ Rhoda, Wouldnt.” 
Poor Elder! Many atime had he ventured 
a-courting, and slowly entering, after his un- 
answered assault upon the door-knocker, had 
found the kitchen of this elusive Rhoda va- 
cant, — but her rocking-chatr was slowly rock- 
zug, — so he sadly left the deserted room, the 
unwelcoming house. 

He sacrificed his life to his affection for 
his dead love. He had all his days a fear, 
a premonition, that he should lose his life 
through a horse, so he never rode or drove, 
but walked, rowed, or sailed, and lived on an 
island to escape his dreaded doom. When 
Rhoda’s brother died in a distant town, the 
Elder was bidden to the funeral, and he 


THEIR AMUSEMENTS, ETC. B37 


honored his Rhoda’s memory by his attend- 
ance, and he had to ride there. As he left 
the house of mourning, a fractious young 
colt ran away with him, threw him out of the 
wagon, and broke his neck. 

His sweetheart’s “ Leather-Works”’ still 
exist, to keep fresh this New England 
romance. I saw them last summer in the 
attic of the Town Hall. Rhoda left them in 
her will to her church, and they are now the 
property of the village church-guild. The 
guild is vigorous and young, so can bear this 
ancient maiden’s bequest with cheerful car- 
riage and undaunted spirits. The leather- 
works are many and ponderous. One is 
a vast trellis (which may have been origi- 
nally two clothes-horses), hung with elabo- 
rately twisted and tendrilled vines, bearing 
minutely veined leaves and various counter- 
feit and imaginary fruits. The bunches of 
grapes are made of home-cast leaden bul- 
lets, or round stones, covered dexterously 
and with unparalleled neatness and imper- 
ceptible stitches with pieces of old kid gloves 
or thin leather ; and to each a common dress- 
hook is attached. The stem of the bunch 
has corresponding eyes, to each of which a 


238 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


grape is hung. By this ingenious means 
the bunches of grapes could be neatly dusted 
each week, and kept in repair, as well as eas- 
ily shaped. On this trellis hung also Roses 
of Sharon, a mystic flower which Rhoda's 
sister Eunice invented, and which had a 
deep spiritual signification, as well as extraor- 
dinary outline and intricate composition. 
Every leaf, every grape, every monstrous 
fruit, every flower of these Leather-Works, 
speaks of the zsthetic longing, the vague 
mysticism, the stifled repression, of Rhoda 
Baker’s life; and they speak equally of the 
Elder's love. It was he who moulded the 
bullets, and searched on the shore for care- 
fully rounded stones ; and he who haunted 
the country saddlers and repair-shops for 
waste strips of leather, which he often de- 
posited in the silent kitchen by the rocking- 
chair, sure of grateful though unspoken 
thanks. Many a pair of his old boot-tops 
figures as glorious vine leaves; and he 
even tanned and dressed skins to supply 
swiftly the artist’s materials when genius 
burned. It was he who tenderly unhooked 
the grapes and pears, the fruits of Eden and 
the Roses of Sharon, when the trellis was 


IHETR AMOSEMENTS, ETC. 239 


transported to the Town Hall, and he rev- 
erently placed the trophies of his true love’s 
skill and genius in place in their new home. 
I always rather resent the fact that Rhoda 
did not bequeath the Leather-Works to him, 
when I think of the vast and almost sacred 
pleasure he would have had in them; as well 
as when I remember the share he had in the 
preparations for their manufacture. And the 
Leather-Works speak still another lesson, 
as do many of the household grotesqueries 
seen in New England, a lesson of sympathy, 
almost of beauty, to those who “read 
between the lines, the finer 
grace of unfulfilled 
designs.” 


CHAPTER X. 
DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 


E are constantly hearing the statement 
reiterated, that the Society of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution was 
the first association of women ever formed 
for patriotic purpose. This assertion shows 
a lamentable ignorance of Revolutionary his- 
tory; for a century and a quarter ago, be- 
fore the War of the Revolution, patriotic 
societies of women were formed all over the 
country, and called Daughters of Liberty. 
Our modern bands should be distinguished 
by being called the first patriotic-hereditary 
societies of women. 

As we approach Revolutionary days, it is 
evident that the women of all the colonies 
were as deeply stirred as were the men at 
the constant injustice and growing tyranny 
of the British government, and they were 
not slow in openly averring their abhorrence 
and revolt against this injustice. Their in- 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 241 


dividual action consisted in the wearing only 
of garments of homespun manufacture ; their 
concerted exertions in gathering in patriotic 
bands to spin, and the signing of compacts 
to drink no more of the taxed tea, that sig- 
nificant emblem of British injustice and 
American revolt. 

The earliest definite notice of any gather- 
ing of Daughters of Liberty was in Provi- 
dence in 1766, when seventeen young ladies 
met at the house of Deacon Ephraim Bowen 
and spun all day long for the public benefit, 
and assumed the name Daughters of Lib- 
erty. The next meeting the little band had 
so increased in numbers that it had to meet 
in the Court House. At about the same 
time another band of daughters gathered at 
Newport, and an old list of the members has 
been preserved. It comprised all the beauti- 
ful and brilliant young girls for which New- 
port was at that time so celebrated. As one 
result of this patriotic interest, the President 
and the first graduating class of Brown Uni- 
versity, then called Rhode Island College, 
were clothed, at Commencement in 1769, in 
fabrics of American homespun manufacture. 


242 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


The senior class of the previous year at 
Harvard had been similarly dressed. 

These little bands of patriotic women 
gathered far and wide throughout New Eng- 
land. At one meeting seventy linen wheels 
were employed. In Newbury, Beverly, Row- 
ley, Ipswich, spinning matches were held. 
Let me show how the day was spent. I 
quote from the Boston News-Letter : — 


Rowley. A number of thirty-three respectable 
ladies of the town met at sunrise [this was in 
July] with their wheels to spend the day at the 
house of the Rev’d Jedidiah Jewell in the lauda- 
ble design of a spinning match. At an hour be- 
fore sunset, the ladies then appearing neatly 
dressed, principally in homespun, a polite and 
generous repast of American production was set 
for their entertainment, after which being pres- 
ent many spectators of both sexes, Mr. Jewell 
delivered a profitable discourse from Romans 
xli. 2: Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, 
serving the Lord. 


You will never find matters of church and 
patriotism very far apart in New England; 
so I learn that when they met in Ipswich 
the Daughters of Liberty were also enter- 
tained with a sermon. The Newbury patri- 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 243 


ots drank Liberty Tea, and listened to a 
sermon on the text Proverbs xxxi. I9. An- 
other text used at one of these gatherings 
was from Exodus xxxv. 25: “And all the 
women that were wise-hearted did spin with 
their hands.”’ 

The women of Virginia were early in the 
patriotic impulses, yet few proofs of their 
action or determination remain. In a North- 
ern paper, the Boston Evening Post of Jan- 
uary 31, 1770, we read this Toast to the 
Southerners : — 


NEW TOASTS. 


The patriotic ladies of Virginia, who have 
nobly distinguished themselves by appearing in 
the Manufactures of America, and may those of 
the Massachusetts be laudably ambitious of not 
being outdone by Virginians. 

The wise and virtuous part of the Fair Sex in 
Boston and other Towns, who being at length 
sensible that by the consumption of Teas they 
are supporting the Commissioners & other Tools 
of Power, have voluntarily agreed not to give or 
receive any further Entertainments of that Kind, 
until those Creatures, together with the Boston 
Standing Army, are removed, and the Revenue 
Acts repealed. 


244. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


May the disgrace which a late venal & cor- 
rupt Assembly has brought upon a Sister Colony, 
be wiped away by a Dissolution. 


This is pretty plain language, but it could 
not be strange to the public ear, for ere this 
Boston women had been appealed to in the 
press upon this same subject. 

In the Massachusetts Gazette, as early as 
November. 9, 1767, these lines show the in- 
dignant and revolutionary spirit of the time: 


Young ladies in town and those that live round 
Let a friend at this season advise you. 

Since money ’s so scarce and times growing worse, 
Strange things may soon hap and surprise you. 

First then throw aside your high top knots of pride 
Wear none but your own country linen. 

Of economy boast. Let your pride be the most 
To show cloaths of your own make and spinning. 

What if homespun they say is not quite so gay 
As brocades, yet be not in a passion, 

For when once it is known this is much wore in town, 
One and all will cry out ’T is the fashion. 

And as one and all agree that you ’ll not married be 
To such as will wear London factory 

But at first sight refuse, till e’en such you do choose 
As encourage our own manufactory. 


Soon these frequent appeals, and the in- 
fluence of the public and earnest revolt of 
the Sons of Liberty, resulted in a public 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 245 


compact of Boston women. It is thus re- 
corded in the Boston press : — 


The Boston Evening Post: — 


Monday, February 12, 1770. 
The following agreement has lately been come 
into by upwards of 300 Mistresses of Families in 
this Town ; in which Number the Ladies of the 
highest rank and Influence, that could be waited 
upon in so short a Time, are included. 


BosTON, January 31, 1770. 

At a time when our invaluable Rights and 
Privileges are attacked in an unconstitutional 
and most alarming Manner, and as we find we 
are reproached for not being so ready as could 
be desired, to lend our Assistance, we think it 
our Duty perfectly to concur with the true 
Friends of Liberty in all Measures they have 
taken to save this abused Country from Ruin 
and Slavery. And particularly, we join with the 
very respectable Body of Merchants and other 
Inhabitants of this Town, who met in Faneuil 
Hall the 23d of this Instant, in their Resolutions, 
totally to abstain from the Use of Tea; And as 
the greatest Part of the Revenue arising by Vir- 
tue of the late Acts, is produced from the Duty 
paid upon Tea, which Revenue is wholly ex- 
pended to support the American Board of Com- 


246 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


missioners ; We, the Subscribers, do strictly en- 
gage, that we will totally abstain from the Use of 
that Article, (Sickness excepted) not only in our 
respective Families, but that we will absolutely 
refuse it, if it should be offered to us upon any 
Occasion whatsoever. This Agreement we cheer- 
fully come into, as we believe the very distressed 
Situation of our Country requires it, and we do 
hereby oblige ourselves religiously to observe it, 
till the late Revenue Acts are repealed. 


Massachusetts Gazette, and the Boston 


Weekly News-Letter : — 
February 15, 1770. 


We hear that a large Number of the Mistresses 
of Families, some of whom are Ladies of the 
highest Rank, in this Town, have signed an 
Agreement against drinking Tea (Bohea it is 
supposed, tho’ not specified); they engage not 
only to abstain from it in their Families (Sick- 
ness excepted) but will absolutely refuse it, if it 
should be offered to them upon any Occasion; 
This Agreement to be religiously observed till 
the Revenue Acts are repealed. 

It was natural that, in that hotbed of re- 
bellion, young girls should not be behind 
their brothers, fathers, and their mothers in 
open avowal of their revolt. Soon the young 
ladies published this declaration : — 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 247 


We, the daughters of those patriots who have 
and do now appear for the public interest, and 
in that principally regard their posterity — as 
such, do with pleasure engage with them in deny- 
ing ourselves the drinking of foreign tea in hopes 
to frustrate a plan which tends to deprive the 
whole community of all that is valuable as life. 


One dame thus declared her principles and 
motives in blank verse : — 


Farewell the teaboard with its gaudy equipage 

Of cups and saucers, creambucket, sugar tongs, 
The pretty tea-chest, also lately stored 

With Hyson, Congo and best double-fine. 

Full many a joyous moment have I sat by ye 
Hearing the girls tattle, the old maids talk scandal, 
And the spruce coxcomb laugh at — maybe — nothing. 
Though now detestable 

Because I am taught (and I believe it true) 

Its use will fasten slavish chains upon my country 
To reign triumphant in America. 


When little Anna Green Winslow bought 
a hat in February, 1771, she bought one of 
“white holland with the feathers sewed on 
in a most curious manner, white and unsul- 
leyed as the falling snow. As I am as we 
say a daughter of Liberty I chuse to wear 


as much of our own manufactory as posi- 
ble™ 


248 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Mercy Warren wrote to John Winthrop, in 
fine satire upon this determination of Amer- 
ican women to give up all imports from Great 
Britain except the necessaries of life, a list 
of the articles a woman would deem it im- 
perative to retain :— 


An inventory clear 
Of all she needs Lamira offers here. 
Nor does she fear a rigid Catos frown 
When she lays by the rich embroidered gown 
And modestly compounds for just enough — 
Perhaps some dozen of more slighty stuff. 
With lawns and lutestrings, blond and mecklin laces, 
Fringes and jewels, fans and tweezer cases, 
Gay cloaks and hats of every shape and size, 
Scrafs, cardinals and ribbons of all dyes. 
With ruffles stamped, and aprons of tambour, 
Tippets and handkerchiefs at least three score ; 
With finest muslins that far India boasts, 
And the choice herbage from Chinesan coast. 
(But while the fragrant hyson leaf regales 
Who’ll wear the home-spun produce of the vales? 
For if ’t would save the nation from the curse 
Of standing troops — or name a plague still worse, 
Few can this choice delicious draught give up, 
Though all Medea’s poison fill the cup.) 
Add feathers, furs, rich satins and ducapes 
And head dresses in pyramidal shapes, 
Sideboards of plate and porcelain profuse, 
With fifty dittos that the ladies use. 
So weak Lamira and her wants are few, 
Who can refuse, they ’re but the sex’s due. 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 249 


In youth indeed an antiquated page 

Taught us the threatening of a Hebrew page 
Gainst wimples, mantles, curls and crisping pins, 
But rank not these among our modern sins, 

For when our manners are well understood 
What in the scale is stomacher or hood? 

Tis true we love the courtly mien and air 

The pride of dress and all the debonair, 

Yet Clara quits the more dressed negligé 

And substitutes the careless polané 

Until some fair one from Britannia’s court 

Some jaunty dress or newer taste import, 

This sweet temptation could not be withstood, 
Though for her purchase paid her father’s blood. 


After the war had really begun, Mrs. John 
Adams, writing July 31, 1777, tells of an 
astonishing action of Boston women, plainly 
the result of all these revolutionary tea- 
notions :— 


There is a great scarcity of sugar and coffee, 
articles which the female part of the State is very 
loath to give up, especially whilst they consider 
the scarcity occasioned by the merchants having 
secreted a large quantity. ‘There had been much 
rout and noise in the town for several weeks. 
Some stores had been opened by a number of 
people, and the coffee and sugar carried into the 
market and dealt out by pounds. It was rumored 
that an eminent stingy wealthy merchant (who is 
a bachelor) had a hogshead of coffee in his store 


250 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


which he refused to sell the committee under six 
shillings per pound. A number of females, some 
say a hundred, some say more, assembled with a 
cart and trunks, marched down to the warehouse 
and demanded the keys which he refused to de- 
liver. Upon which one of them seized him by 
his neck and tossed him into the cart. Upon 
his finding no quarter, he delivered the keys 
when they tipped up the cart and discharged 
him ; then opened the warehouse, hoisted out 
the coffee themselves, put into the trunks, and 
drove off. It was reported that he had personal 
chastisements among them, but this I believe 
was not true. A large concourse of men stood 
amazed, silent spectators of the whole trans- 
action. 


I suppose these Boston dames thought 
they might have coffee since they could not 
have tea; and, indeed, the relative use of 
these two articles in America was much 
changed by the Revolution. To this day 
much more coffee is drunk in America, pro- 
portionately, than in England. We are not 
a tea-drinking nation. 

I don’t know that there were Daughters 
of Liberty in Philadelphia, but Philadelphia 
women were just as patriotic as those of other 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 251 


towns. One wrote to a British officer as 
follows:: — 


I have retrenched every superfluous expense 
in my table and family. Tea I have not drunk 
since last Christmas, nor have I bought a cap or 
gown since your defeat at Lexington. I have 
learned to knit and am now making stockings 
of wool for my servants. In this way do I now 
throw in my mite for public good. I know this, 
that as free I can die but once, but as a slave I 
shall not be worthy of life. I have the pleasure 
to assure you that these are the sentiments of my 
sister Americans. 


The women of the South were fired with 
patriotism ; in Mecklenburgh and Rowan 
counties, North Carolina, Daughters of Lib- 
erty found another method of spurring pa- 
triotism. Young ladies of the most respect- 
able families banded together, and pledged 
themselves not to receive addresses from any 
recreant suitors who had not obeyed the coun- 
try’s call for military service. 

There was an historic tea-party also in that 
town of so much importance in those days — 
Edenton, N. C. On October 25, 1774, fifty- 
one spirited dames assembled at the resi- 
dence of Mrs. Elizabeth King, and passed 


252 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


resolutions commending the action of the 
Provincial Congress, and declared also that 
they would not conform to “that Pernicious 
Custom of Drinking Tea or that the afore- 
said Ladys would not promote ye wear of any 
manufacture from England,” until the tax 
was repealed. 

The notice of the association is contained 
in the American Archives, and runs thus :— 


Association Signed by Ladies of Edenton, 
North Carolina, Oct. 25,1774. As we cannot be 
indifferent on any occasion that appears to affect 
the peace and happiness of our country, and as 
it has been thought necessary for the publick 
good to enter into several particular resolves, by 
meeting of Members of Deputies from the whole 
Province, it is a duty that we owe not only to our 
near and dear relations and connections, but to 
ourselves who are essentially interested in their 
welfare, to do everything as far as lies in our 
power to testify our sincere adherence to the 
same, and we do therefore accordingly subscribe 
this paper as a witness of our fixed intentions and 
solemn determination to do so. Signed by fifty 
one ladies. 


It is a good example of the strange notions 
which some historians have of the slight 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 253 


value of circumstantial evidence in history, 
that the names of these fifty-one ladies have 
not been preserved. A few, however, are 
known. The president was Mrs. Penelope 
Barker, who was thrice a widow, of husbands 
Hodgson, Crumm, and Barker. She was 
high-spirited, and from her varied matri- 
monial experiences knew that it was need- 
less to be afraid of any man; so when British 
soldiers invaded her stables to seize her car- 
riage horses, she snatched the sword of one 
of her husbands from the wall, with a single 
blow severed the reins in the British officer’s 
hands, and drove her horses back into the 
stables, and kept them too. 

The fame of this Southern tea-party 
reached England, for Arthur Iredell wrote 
(with the usual masculine jocularity upon 
feminine enterprises) thus, on January 31, 
1775, from London to his patriot brother, 
James Iredell : — 


I see by the newspapers the Edenton ladies 
have signalized themselves by their protest 
against tea-drinking. The name of Johnston I 
see among others; are any of my sister’s rela- 
tions patriotic heroines? Is there a female Con- 
gress at Edenton too? I hope not, for we Eng- 


254 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


lishmen are afraid of the male Congress, but if 
the ladies who have ever, since the Amazonian 
era, been esteemed the most formidable enemies, 
if they, I say, should attack us, the most fatal 
consequence is to be dreaded. So dextrous in 
the handling of a dart, each wound they give is 
mortal; whilst we, so unhappily formed by Na- 
ture, the more we strive to conquer them the more 
are conquered! The Edenton ladies, conscious 
I suppose. of this superiority on their side, by 
former experience, are willing, I imagine, to crush 
us into atoms by their omnipotency; the only 
security on our side to prevent the impending 
ruin that I can perceive is the probability that 
there are few places in America which possess 
so much female artillery as in Edenton. 


Another indication of the fame of the 
Edenton tea-party is adduced by Dr. Richard 
Dillard in his interesting magazine paper 
thereon. It was rendered more public by a 
caricature, printed in London, a mezzotint, 
entitled ‘“A Society of Patriotic Ladies at 
Edenton in North Carolina.” One lady with 
a gavel is evidently a man in woman’s cloth- 
ing, and is probably intended for the hated 
Lord North ; other figures are pouring the 
tea out of caddies, others are writing. This 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 255 


caricature may have been brought forth in 
derision of an interesting tea-party picture 
which still exists, and is in North Carolina, 
after some strange vicissitudes in a foreign 
land. It is painted on glass, and the various 
figures are doubtless portraits of the Eden- 
ton ladies. 

It is difficult to-day to be wholly sensi- 
ble of all that these Liberty Bands meant 
to the women of the day. There were not, 
at that time, the associations of women for 
concerted charitable and philanthropic work 
which are so universal now. There were 
few established and organized assemblies of 
women for church work (there had been some 
praying-meetings in Whitefield’s day), and 
the very thought of a woman’s society for 
any other than religious purposes must have 
been in itself revolutionary. And we scarcely 
appreciate all it meant for them to abandon 
the use of tea; for tea-drinking in that day 
meant far more to women than it does now. 
Substitutes for the taxed and abandoned ex- 
otic herb were eagerly sought and speedily 
offered. Liberty Tea, Labrador Tea, and 
Yeopon were the most universally accepted, 
though seventeen different herbs and beans 


256 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


were named by one author; and patriotic 
prophecies were made that their use would 
wholly outlive that of the Oriental drink, 
even could the latter be freely obtained. 
A century has proved the value of these 
prophecies. 

Liberty Tea was the most popular of these 
Revolutionary substitutes. It sold for six- 
pence a pound. It was made from the four- 
leaved loose-strife, a common-growing herb. 
It was pulled up whole like flax, its stalks 
were stripped of the leaves and then boiled. 
The leaves were put in a kettle with the 
liquor from the stalks and again boiled. 
Then the leaves were dried in an oven. 
Sage and rib-wort, strawberry leaves and 
currant leaves, made a shift to serve as tea. 
Hyperion or Labrador Tea, much vaunted, 
was only raspberry leaves, but was not such 
a wholly odious beverage. It was loudly 
praised in the patriotic public press : — 


The use of Hyperion or Labrador tea is every 
day coming into vogue among people of all ranks. 
The virtues of the plant or shrub from which 
this delicate Tea is gathered were first discovered 
by the Aborigines, and from them the Canadians 
learned them. Before the cession of Canada to 


DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY. 257 


Great Britain we knew little or nothing of this 
most excellent herb, but since we have been 
taught to find it growing all over hill and dale 
between the Lat. 40 and 60. It is found all over 
New England in great plenty and that 
of best quality, particularly on the 
banks of the Penobscot, Ken- 
nebec, Nichewannock and 
Merrimac. 


CHAPTER XI. 
A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 


E do not need to make a composite 
picture of the housewife of Revolu- 
tionary days, for a very distinct account has 
been preserved of one in the quaint pages of 
the Remembrancer or diary of Christopher 
Marshall, a well-to-do Quaker of Philadel- 
phia, who was one of the Committee of Ob- 
servation of that city during the Revolution- 
ary War. After many entries through the 
year 1778, which incidentally show the many 
cares of his faithful wife, and her fulfilment 
of these cares, the fortunate husband thus 
bursts forth in her praise :— 


As I have in this memorandum taken scarcely 
any notice of my wife’s employments, it might 
appear as if her engagements were very trifling ; 
the which is not the case but the reverse. And 
to do her justice which her services deserved, by 
entering them minutely, would take up most of 
my time, for this genuine reason, how that from 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 259 


early in the morning till late at night she is con- 
stantly employed in the affairs of the family, 
which for four months has been very large ; for 
besides the addition to our family in the house, 
it is a constant resort of comers and goers which 
seldom go away with dry lips and hungry bellies. 
This calls for her constant attendance, not only 
to provide, but also to attend at getting prepared 
in the kitchen, baking our bread and pies, meat 
&c. and also the table. Her cleanliness about 
the house, her attendance in the orchard, cutting 
and drying apples of which several bushels have 
been procured; add to which her making of 
cider without tools, for the constant drink of the 
family, her seeing all our washing done, and her 
fine clothes and my shirts, the which are all 
smoothed by her; add to this, her making of 
twenty large cheeses, and that from one cow, 
and daily using with milk and cream, besides 
her sewing, knitting &c. Thus she looketh well 
to the ways of her household, and eateth not the 
bread of idleness ; yea she also stretcheth out 
her hand, and she reacheth forth her hand to 
her needy friends and neighbors. I think she 
has not been above four times since her resi- 
dence here to visit her neighbors; nor through 
mercy has she been sick for any time, but has at 
all times been ready in any affliction to me or my 


260 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


family as a faithful nurse and attendant both 
day and night. 


Such laudatory references to the goodwife 
as these abound through the Remembrancer. 


My tender wife keeps busily engaged and 
looks upon every Philadelphian who comes to 
us as a person suffering in a righteous cause; 
and entitled to partake of her hospitality which 
she administers with her labor and attendance 
with great freedom and alacrity.... 

My dear wife meets little respite all the day, 
the proverb being verified, that Woman’s Work 
is never done. 

I owe my health to the vigilance, industry and 
care of my wife who really has been and is a 
blessing unto me. For the constant assiduity 
and press of her daily and painful labor in the 
kitchen, the Great Lord of the Household will 
reward her in due time. 


It seems that so generous and noble a wo- 
man should have had a reward in this world, 
as well as the next, for, besides her kitchen 
duties, she was a “nonsuch gardner, working 
bravely in her garden,” and a first class 
butter-maker, who constantly supplied her 
poor neighbors with milk, and yet always 
had cream to spare for her dairy. 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 261 


Far be it from me to cast even the slight- 
est reflection, to express the vaguest doubt, 
as to the industry, energy, and application of 
so pious, so estimable an old gentleman as 
Mr. Marshall, but he was, as he says, “ easily 
tired” — “the little I do tires and fatigues 
me’’— “the grasshopper seems a burden.” 
So, even to our prosaic and somewhat eman- 
cipated nineteenth century notions as to 
women’s rights and their assumption of 
men’s duties, it does appear that so patient, 
industrious, and overworked a consort might 
have been spared some of the burdensome 
duties which devolved upon her, and which 
are popularly supposed not to belong to the 
distaff side of the house. An elderly milk- 
man might have occasionally milked the 
cow for that elderly weary milkmaid. And 
it does seem just a little strange that a 
hearty old fellow, who could eat gammons 
and drink punch at every occasion of sober 
enjoyment and innocent revelry to which he 
was invited, should let his aged spouse rise 
at daybreak and go to the wharves to buy 
loads of wood from the bargemen ; and also 
complacently record that the horse would 
have died had not the ever-energetic wife 


262 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOOCDWIVES. 


gone out and by dint of hard work and good 
management succeeded in buying in the 
barren city a load of hay for provender. 
However, he never fails to do her justice in 
commendatory words in the pages of his 
Remembrancer, thus proving himself more 
thoughtful than that Yankee husband who 
said to a neighbor that his wife was such a 
good worker and a good cook, and so pleas- 
ant and kept everything so neat and nice 
around the house, that sometimes it seemed 
as if he could n’t help telling her so. 

One of the important housewifely cares of 
Philadelphia women was their marketing, 
and Madam Marshall was faithful in this 
duty also. We find her attending market as 
early as four o’clock upon a winter’s morning. 
In 1690, there were two market days weekly 
in Philadelphia, and nearly all the early writ- 
ers note the attendance thereat of the ladies 
residing inthe town. In 1744, these markets 
were held on Tuesday and Friday. William 
Black, a travelling Virginian, wrote that year 
with admiration of this custom : — 


I got to the market by 7, and had no small 
Satisfaction in seeing the pretty Creatures, the 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 263 


Young Ladies, traversing the place from Stall to 
Stall where they could make the best Market, 
some with their maid behind them with a Basket 
to carry home the Purchase, others that were 
design’d to buy but trifles, as a little fresh But- 
ter, a Dish of Green Peas or the like, had Good 
Nature & Humility enough to be their own Por- 
ters. I have so much regard for the fair Sex 
that I imagin’d like the Woman of the Holy 
Writ some charm in touching even the Hem of 
their Garments. After I made my Market, which 
was one pennyworth of Whey and a Nosegay, I 
disengag’d myself. 


It would appear also that a simple and 
appropriate garment was donned for this 
homely occupation. We find Sarah Eve and 
others writing of wearing a “market cloke.”’ 

It is with a keen thrill of sympathy that 
we read of all the torment that Mistress 
Marshall, that household saint, had to endure 
in the domestic service rendered to her — 
or perhaps I should say through the lack of 
service in her home. A special thorn in the 
flesh was one Poll, a bound girl. On Septem- 
ber 13, 1775, Mr. Marshall wrote : — 


After my wife came from market (she went past 
5) she ordered her girl Poll to carry the basket 


264 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


with some necessaries to the place, as she was 
coming after her, they intending to iron the 
clothes. Poll accordingly went, set down the 
basket, came back, went and dressed herself all 
clean, short calico gown, and said she was going 
to school; but presently after the negro woman 
Dinah came to look for her, her mistress having 
mistrusted she had a mind to play truant. This 
was about nine, but madam took her walk, but 
where — she is not come back to tell. 

Sept. 16. I arose before six as I was much 
concern’d to see my wife so afflicted as before on 
the bad conduct of her girl Poll who is not yet 
returned, but is skulking and running about town. 
This I understand was the practice of her mother 
who for many years before her death was a con- 
stant plague to my wife, and who left her this girl 
as a legacy, and who by report as well as by own 
knowledge, for almost three years has always 
been so down to this time. About eight, word 
was brought that Poll was just taken by Sister 
Lynn near the market, and brought to their 
house. A messenger was immediately dispatched 
for her, as she could not be found before, though 
a number of times they had been hunting her. 


As the years went on, Poll kept taking 
what he called “cruises,” “driving strokes 
of impudence,” visiting friends, strolling 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 265 


around the streets, faring up and down the 
country, and he patiently writes :— 


This night our girl was brought home. I sup- 
pose she was hunted out, as it is called, and 
found by Ruth on the Passyunk Road. Her 
mistress was delighted upon her return, but I 
know of nobody else in house or out. I have 
nothing to say in the affair, as I know of nothing 
that would distress my wife so much as for me to 
refuse or forbid her being taken into the house. 

(A short time after) I arose by four as my wife 
had been up sometime at work cleaning house, 
and as she could not rest on account of Polls 
not being yet return’d. The girls frolics always 
afflict her mistress, so that to me its plain if she 
does not mend, or her mistress grieve less for 
her, that it will shorten Mrs Marshalls days con- 
siderably ; besides our house wears quite a dif- 
ferent face when Miss Poll is in it (although all 
the good she does is not worth half the salt she 
eats.) As her presence gives pleasure to her 
mistress, this gives joy to all the house, so that 
in fact she is the cause of peace or uneasiness 
in the home. 

It is with a feeling of malicious satisfaction 
that we read at last of the jaded, harassed, 
and conscientious wife going away for a 
visit, and know that the man of the house 


266 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


will have to encounter and adjust domestic 
problems as best he may. No sooner had 
the mistress gone than Poll promptly de- 
parted also on a vacation. As scores of 
times before, Mr. Marshall searched for her, 
and retrieved her (when she was ready to 
come), and she behaved exceeding well for a 
day, only, when rested, to again make a flit- 
ting. He writes on the 23d:— 


I roused Charles up at daylight. Found Miss 
Poll in the straw house. She came into the 
kitchen and talked away that she could not go 
out at night but she must be locked out. If that’s 
the case she told them she would pack up her 
clothes and go quite away ; that she would not be 
so served as her Mistress did not hinder her stay- 
ing out when she pleased, and the kitchen door 
to be opened for her when she came home and 
knocked. The negro woman told me as well as 
she could what she said. I then went and picked 
up her clothes that I could find. I asked her 
how she could behave so to me when I had con- 
ducted myself so easy towards her even so as to 
suffer her to sit at table and eat with me. This 
had no effect upon her. She rather inclined to 
think that she had not offended and had done 
nothing but what her mistress indulged her in. 
I told her before Betty that it was not worth my 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 267 


while to lick her though she really deserved it for 
her present impudence ; but to remember I had 
taken all her clothes I could find except what she 
had on, which I intended to keep; that if she 
went away Charles with the horse should follow 
her and bring her back and that I would send 
a bellman around the borough of Lancaster to 
cry her as a runaway servant, wicked girl, with 
a reward for apprehending her. 


The fatuous simplicity of Quaker Mar- 
shall’s reproofs, the futility of his threats, the 
absurd failure of his masculine methods, re- 
ceived immediate illustration —as might be 
expected, by Miss Poll promptly running 
away that very night. Again he writes :— 


Charles arose near daybreak and I soon after, 
in order to try to find my nightly and daily 
plague, as she took a walk again last night. 
Charles found her. We turned her upstairs to 
refresh herself with sleep. .. . 

(Two days later) After breakfast let our Poll 
downstairs where she has been kept since her 
last frolic. Fastened her up again at night. I 
think my old enemy Satan is much concerned in 
the conduct and behavior of that unfortunate 
girl. He knows her actions give me much anx- 
iety and indeed at times raise my anger so I have 


268 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


said what should have been avoided, but I hope 
for the future to be more upon my guard and 
thus frustrate him in his attempts. 

With what joy did the masculine house- 
keeper and steward greet the return of his 
capable wife, and resign his position as turn- 
key! Poll, upon liberation from restraint, 
flew swiftly away like any other bird from 
its cage. 

Notwithstanding such heavy weather overhead 
and exceeding dirty under foot our Poll after 
breakfast went to see the soldiers that came as 
prisoners belonging to Burgoynes army. Our 
trull returned this morning. Her mistress gave 
her a good sound whipping. This latter was a 
variety. 

And so the unequal fight went on; Poll 
calmly breaking down a portion of the fence 
that she might decamp more promptly, and 
return unheralded. She does not seem to 
have been vicious, but simply triumphantly 
lawless and fond of gadding. I cannot 
always blame her. I am sure I should have 
wanted to go to see the soldier-prisoners of 
Burgoyne’s army brought into town. The 
last glimpse of her we have is with “her 
head dressed in tiptop fashion,” rolling off in 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 269 


a coach to Yorktown with Sam Morris’s son, 
and not even saying good-by to her van- 
quished master. 

Mr. Marshall was not the only Philadel- 
phian to be thus afflicted; we find one of his 
neighbors, Jacob Hiltzheimer, dealing a more 
summary way with arefractory maid-servant. 
Shortly after noting in the pages of his diary 
that “our maid Rosina was impertinent to 
her mistress,’ we find this good citizen tak- 
ing the saucy young redemptioner before the 
squire, who summarily ordered her to the 
workhouse. After remaining a month in 
that confinement, Rosina boldly answered 
no, when asked if she would go back to her 
master and behave as she ought, and she 
was promptly remanded. But she soon 
repented, and was released. Her master 
paid for her board and lodging wnile under 
detention, and quickly sold her for 420 for 
her remaining term of service. 

With the flight of the Marshalls’ sorry 
Poll, the sorrows and trials of this good 
Quaker household with regard to what Ra- 
leigh calls “domesticals’”’ were not at an end. 
As the “creatures” and the orchard and gar- 
den needed such constant attention, a man- 


270 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


servant was engaged — one Antony —a 
character worthy of Shakespeare’s comedies. 
Soon we find the master writing : — 

I arose past seven and had our gentleman to 
call down stairs. I spoke to him about his not 
serving the cows. He at once began about his 
way being all right, &c. I set about serving 
our family and let him, as in common, do as he 
pleases. I think I have hired a plague to my 
spirit. Yet he is still the same Antony — he 
says —complaisant, careful, cheerful, indus- 
trious. 


Then Antony grew noisy and talkative, so 
abusive at last that he had to be put out 
in the yard, where he railed and talked till 
midnight, to the annoyance of the neigh- 
bors and the mortification of his mistress; 
for he protested incessantly and noisily that 
all he wished was to leave in peace and 
quiet, which he was not permitted to do. 
Then, and repeatedly, his master told him 
to leave, but the servant had no other home, 
and might starve in the war-desolated town ; 
so after half-promises he was allowed by 
thesé®' tender * folk’ to; ‘stay ‘on. =Sooneie 
had another “tantrum,” and the astounded 
Quaker writes :— 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 271 


He rages terribly uttering the most out of the 
way wicked expressions yet not down-right swear- 
ing. Mamma says it is cursing in the Popish 
Waye re. 


What this Popish swearing could have 
been arouses my curiosity; I suspect it was 
a kind of “dog-latin.” Antony constantly 
indulged in it, to the horror and sorrow of 
the pious Marshalls. And the amusing, the 
fairly comic side of all this is that Antony 
was a preacher, a prophet in the land, and 
constantly held forth in meeting to sinners 
around him. We read of him : — 


Antony went to Quakers meeting today where 
he preached; although he was requested to de- 
sist, so that by consent they broke up the meet- 
ing sooner than they would have done... . 

Mamma went to meeting where Antony spoke 
and was forbid. He appeared to be most con- 
summately bold and ignorant in his speaking 
there. And about the house I am obliged in a 
stern manner at times to order him not to say 
one word more... . 

This afternoon Antony preached at the Eng- 
lish Presbyterian meeting. It is said that the 
hearers laughed at him but he was highly pleased 
with himself. 


272 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Antony preached at meeting. I kept engaged 
helping to cook the pot against master came 
home. He comes and goes as he pleases. 


I don’t know when to pity poor Dame 
Marshall the most, with Antony railing in 
the yard and disturbing the peace of the 
neighbors; or Antony cursing in a Popish 
manner through the house; or Antony sham- 
ming sick and moaning by the fireside; or 
Antony violently preaching when she had 
gone to the quiet Quaker meeting for an 
hour of peace and rest. 

This ‘“runnagate rascal” was as elusive, 
as tricky, as malicious as a gnome; when- 
ever he was reproved, he always contrived 
to invent a new method of annoyance in 
revenge. When chidden for not feeding the 
horse, he at once stripped the leaves off the 
growing cabbages, cut off the carrot heads, 
and pulled up the potatoes, and pretended 
and protested he did it all solely to bene- 
fit them, and thus do good to his master. 
When asked to milk the cow, he promptly 
left the Marshall domicile for a whole day. 


Sent Antony in the orchard to watch the boys. 
As I was doubtful sometime whether if any came 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 273 


for apples Antony would prevent, I took a walk 
to the back fence, made a noise by pounding as 
if I would break the fence, with other noise. 
This convinced me Antony sat in his chair. He 
took no notice till my wife and old Rachel came 
to him, roused him, and scolded him for his 
neglect. His answer was that he thought it his 
duty to be still and not disturb them, as by so 
doing he should have peace in heaven and a 
blessing would ever attend him. 


This was certainly the most sanctimonious 
excuse for laziness that was ever invented ; 
and on the following day Antony supple- 
mented his tergiversation by giving away all 
Mr. Marshall’s ripe apples through the fence 
to passers-by — neighbors, boys, soldiers, and 
prisoners. There may have been method in 
this orchard madness, for Antony loathed 
apple-pie, a frequent comestible in the Mar- 
shall domicile, and often refused to drink 
cider, and grumbling made toast-tea instead. 
In a triumph of euphuistic indignation, Mr. 
Marshall thus records the dietetic vagaries 
of the “ most lazy impertinent talking lying 
fellow any family was ever troubled with:” 


When we have no fresh broth he wants some ; 
when we have it he cant sup it. When we have 


274 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


lean of bacon he wants the fat ; when the fat he 
cant eat it without spreading salt over it as with- 
out it its too heavy for his stomach. If new 
milk he cant eat it till its sour, it curdles on his 
stomach; when sour or bonnyclabber it gives 
him the stomach-ache. Give him tea he doesn’t 
like such slop, its not fit for working men ; if he 
hasn’t it when he asks for it he’s not well used. 
Give him apple pie above once for some days, 
its not suitable for him it makes him sick. If 
the negro woman makes his bed, she dont make 
it right ; if she dont make it she’s a lazy black 
jade, &c. 


In revenge upon the negro woman Dinah 
for not making his bed to suit his notion, he 
pretended to have had a dream about her, 
which he interpreted to such telling effect 
that she thought Satan was on his swift way 
to secure her, and fled the house in super- 
stitious fright, in petticoat and shift, and 
was captured three miles out of town. On 
her return, Antony outdid himself with “all 
the vile ribaldry, papist swearing, incoherent 
scurrilous language, that imperious pride, 
vanity, and folly could invent or express” — 
and then went off to meeting to preach and 
pray. Well might the Quaker say with Juve- 


A REVOLUTIONARY HOUSEWIFE. 275 


nal, ‘“‘ The tongue is the worst part of a bad 
servant.’ At last, exasperated beyond meas- 
ure, his patient master vowed, “Antony, I 
will give thee a good whipping,” and he could 
do it, for he had “pacified himself with sundry 
stripes of the cowskin”’ on Dinah, the negro, 
when she, in emulation of Antony, was im- 
pertinent to her mistress. 

The threat of a whipping brought on An- 
tony a “fit of stillness’’ which descended 
like a blessing on the exhausted house. But 
“the devil is sooner raised than laid ;’’ anon 
Antony was in his old lunes again, and the 
peace was broken by a fresh outburst of lazi- 
ness, indifference, and abuse, in which we 
must leave this afflicted household, for at 
that date the Remembrancer abruptly closes. 

The only truly good service rendered to 
those much tried souls was by a negro wo- 
man, Dinah, who, too good for this earth, 

died ; and in her death involved them 
in fresh trouble, for in that 
war-swept town they could 
scarce procure her 
burial. 


CHAP PERS MIT: 
FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES, 


ROUND the great glowing fireplace in 
an old New England kitchen centred 
the homeliness and picturesqueness of an old- 
time home. The walls and floor were bare; 
the furniture was often meagre, plain, and 
comfortless ; the windows were small and ill- 
fitting; the whole house was draughty and 
cold; but in the kitchen glowed a benefi- 
cent heart that spread warmth and cheer and 

welcome, and beauty also when 

the old rude-furnished room 
Burst flower-like into rosy bloom. 

The settlers builded great chimneys with 
ample open hearths, and to those hearths 
the vast forests supplied plentiful fuel; but 
as the forests disappeared in the vicinity of 
the towns, the fireplaces also shrank in size, 
so that in Franklin’s day he could write of 
the big chimneys as “the fireplaces of our 
fathers ;”’ and his inventions for economiz- 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 277 


ing fuel had begun to be regarded as neces- 
sities. 

The kitchen was the housewife’s domain, 
the chimney-seat her throne ; but the furni- 
ture of that throne and the sceptre were 
far different from the kitchen furnishings of 
to-day. 

We often see fireplaces with hanging 
cranes in pictures illustrating earliest colo- 
nial times, but the crane was unknown in 
those days. When the seventeenth-century 
chimney was built, ledges were left on either 
side, and on them rested the ends of a long 
heavy pole of green wood, called a lug-pole 
or back bar. The derivation of the word 
lug-pole is often given as meaning from lug 
to lug, as the chimney-side was often called 
the lug. Whittier wrote :— 


And for him who sat by the chimney lug. 


Others give it from the old English word 
lug, to carry; for it was indeed the carrying- 
pole. It was placed high up in the yawning 
chimney, with the thought and intent of its 
being out of reach of the devouring flames, 
and from it hung a motley collection of 
hooks of various lengths and weights, some- 


278 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


times with long rods, sometimes with chains, 
and rejoicing in various names. Pot-hooks, 
pot-hangers, pot-hangles, pot-claws, pot- 
cleps, were one and the same; so also were 
trammels and crooks. Gib and gibcroke 
were other titles. Hake was of course the 
old English for hook :— 


On went the boilers till the hake 
Had much ado to bear ’em. 


A twi-crook was a double hook. 

Other terms were gallow-balke, for the 
lug-pole, and gallow-crookes for pot-hooks. 
These were Yorkshire words, used alike in 
that county by common folk and gentry. 
They appear in the inventory of the goods 
of Sir Timothy Hutton, and in the farming- 
book of Henry Best, both dating to the time 
of settlement of New England. A recon 
was another Yorkshire name fora chain with 
pot-hooks. They were heard but rarely in 
New England. 

The “eetch-hooke” named by Thomas 
Angell, of Providence, in 1694, with his 
“tramils and pot hookes” is an unknown 
and undescribable form of trammel to me, 
possibly an H-hook. 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 279 


By these vari-named hooks were suspended 
at various heights over the flames pots, ket- 
tles, and other bailed cooking utensils. 

The lug-pole, though made of green wood, 
often became brittle or charred through too 
long and careless use over the hot fire, and 
was left in the chimney till it broke under 
its weighty burden of food and metal. And 
as within the chimney corner was a favorite 
seat for both old and young of the house- 
hold, not only were precious cooking utensils 
endangered and food lost, but human life as 
well, as told in Judge Sewall’s diary, and in 
other diaries and letters of the times. So, 
when the iron crane was hung in the fire- 
place, it not only added grace and conven- 
ience to the family hearth, but safety as well. 
On it still were hung the pot-hooks and 
trammels, but with shortened arms or hang- 
ers. 

The mantel was sometimes called by the 
old English name, clavy or clavel-piece. In 
one of John Wynter’s letters, written in 
1634, he describes his new home in Maine: 

The chimney is large, with an oven in each 


end of him: he is so large that we can place our 
Cyttle within the Clavell-piece. We can brew 


280 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


and bake and boyl our Cyttle all at once in 
him. 


The change in methods of cooking is 
plainly evinced in many of our common 
kitchen utensils. In olden times the pots 
and kettles always stood on legs, and all 
skillets and frying-pans and saucepans stood 
on slender legs, that, if desired, they might 
be placed with their contents over small 
beds of coals raked to one side of the hearth. 
A further convenience to assist this stand- 
ing over coals was a little trivet, a tripod or 
three-footed stand, usually but a simple skele- 
ton frame on which the skillet could be 
placed. In the corner of a fireplace would 
be seen trivets with legs of various lengths, 
through which the desired amount of heat 
could be obtained. We read in Eden’s Ferst 
Books on America: — 


He shulde fynde in one place a fryingpan, in 
another chauldron, here a tryvet, there a spytte, 
and these in kynde in every pore mans house : — 


Of somewhat later date was the toast rack, 
also standing on its little spindling legs. 

No better list can. be given of the kitchen 
utensils of earliest colonial days in America 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 281 


than those found in the inventories of the 
estates of the dead immigrants. These in- 
ventories are, in some cases, still preserved 
in the Colonial Court Records. We find 
that Madam Olmstead, of Hartford, Conn., 
had, in 1640, in her kitchen :— 


2 Brasse Skillets 1 Ladle 1 candlestick 
one mortar all of brasse 1 brasse pott 5. 

7 Small peuter dishes 1 peuter bason 6 
porringers 2 peuter candlesticks 1 
frudishe 2 little sasers 1 smale plate. 1. Io. 

7 biger peuter dishes 1 salt 2 peuter 
cupps 1 peuter dram 1 peuter bottel 
1 Warmeing pan 13 peuter spoons... 2. 12. 

1 Stupan 3 bowles & a tunnel 7 dishes 
10 spoones one Wooddin cupp 1 
Wooddin platter with three old latten 
panns Two dozen and a halfe trench- 


ersitwo wyer candlesticks. ¢.0 25 's.4). Il. 
2 Jacks 2 Bottels 2 drinking hornes 1 
WTR Sere ae Oe eS ee Rea, ore 10. 


2 beare hogsheads 2 beare barrels 2 
powdering tubs 4 brueing vessels 1 
BO ioeeg db The STAG aan Seeiaan drain Oo 


This was certainly a very good outfit. The 
utensils for the manufacture and storage of 
beer did not probably stand in the kitchen, 


282 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


but in the lean-to or brew-house. A “cowl”’ 
was a large tub with ears ; in it liquids could 
be carried by two persons, who bore the 
ends of a pole thrust through the ears or 
handles. Often with the cowl was specified 
a pail with iron bail. William Harris, of 
Pawtuxet, R. I, had, in 1681, ‘two Payles 
and one jron Bayle” worth three shillings. 
This naming of the pail-bail marked the 
change in the form of pail handles; origi- 
nally, pails were carried by sticks thrust 
through ears on either side of the vessel. 

The jacks were waxed leather jugs or 
drinking horns, much used in English ale- 
houses in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies, whose use gave rise to the singular 
notion of the French that Englishmen drank 
their ale out of their boots. Governor Win- 
throp had jacks and leather bottles; but 
both names disappear from inventories by 
the year 1700, in New England. 

These leather bottles were in universal 
use in England “among shepherds and har- 
vest-people in the countrey.” They were 
also called bombards. Their praises were 
sung in a very spirited ballad, of which I 
give a few lines : — 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 283 


I wish in heaven his soul may dwell 

Who first found out the leather bottell. 

A leather bottell we know is good 

Far better than glasses or cases of wood, 
For when a mans at work in a field 

Your glasses and pots no comfort will yield, 
But a good leather bottell standing by 

Will raise his spirits whenever he’s dry. 


And when the bottell at last grows old, 

And will good liquor no longer hold, 

Out of the side you may make a clout 

To mend your shoes when they ’re worn out, 
Or take and hang it up on a pin 

*T will serve to put hinges and odd things in. 


Latten-ware was a kind of brass. It may 
be noted that no tin appears on this list, nor 
in many of the inventories of these early 
Connecticut colonists. Thomas Hooker had 
several ‘‘tynnen covers.” 

Brass utensils were far from cheap. Hand- 
some brass mortars were expensive. Brass 
kettles were worth three pounds apiece. No 
wonder the Indians wished their brass ket- 
tles buried with them as their most precious 
possessions. The brass utensils of William 
Whiting, of Hartford, in 1649, were worth 
twenty pounds ; Thomas Hooker’s, about fif- 
teen pounds. Among other utensils named 
in the inventories of some neighbors of 


284 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Mr. Hooker were an “iron to make Wafer 
cakes,’ ,“dyitt. .vessels,; “shrédin skumwes 
“flesh fork.” Robert Day had a “brass 
chaffin dish, 3s, lether bottle 2s, brass posnet 
4s, brass pott’ 6s; brass -kettle"2, 10s; sWeey 
chafing-dish in olden times was an open box 
of wire into which coals were thrust. 

Dame Huit, of Windsor, Conn., had these 
articles, among others :— 


1 Cullender 2 Pudding pans. In kitchen 

in brasse & Iron potts, ladles, skim- 

mers, dripping pans, posnets, and 

OthéC Dans... aie tian: tue ses i eee 6. Ios. 
A pair Andirons 2 Brandii 2 Pair Crooks 

3 pair of tonges and Iron Spitts pot- 


TANGEES. «cure ee static ts ‘sets eo ots ee I 
TPBOrnace. >) oh Sees g ed ance O's eae ane ee 2; 
Tubbs pales churnes butter barrels & 

other: woodin impléments/o-:-. orem a 


The “two Brandii” were brand-irons or 
brond-yrons, a kind of trivet or support to 
set on the andirons. Sometimes they held 
brands or logs in place, or upon them dishes 
could be placed. Toasting-irons and _ broil- 
ing-irons are named. ‘‘Scieufes,’’ or sieves, 
were worth a shilling apiece. 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 285 


Eleazer Lusher, of Dedham, Mass., in 
1672, owned cob-irons, trammels, firepans, 
gridirons, toasting-fork, salt pan, brand pan, 
mortar, pestle, box iron heaters, kettles, skil- 
lets, spits, frying-pan, ladles, skimmers, chaf- 
ing-dishes, pots, pot-hooks, and creepers. 

The name creeper brings to our considera- 
tion one of the homeliest charms of the fire- 
place —the andirons. Creepers were the 
lower and smaller andirons placed between 
the great firedogs. The word is also applied 
to a low cooking spider, which could be 
pushed in among the embers. Cob-irons 
were the simplest form of andirons, and usu- 
ally were used merely to support the spit; 
sometimes they had hooks to hold a dripping- 
pan under the spit. Sometimes a fireplace 
showed three pairs of andirons, on which 
logs could be laid at various heights. Some- 
times a single pair of andirons had three 
sets of hooks or branches for the same pur- 
pose. They were made of iron, copper, steel, 
or brass, often cast in a handsome design. 
The andirons played an important part in 
the construction and preservation of a fire. 

And the construction of one of these great 
fires was no light or careless matter. Whit- 


286 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


tier, in his Szow-Bound, thus tells of the 
making of the fire in his home : — 


We piled with care our nightly stack 
Of wood against the chimney-back, — 
The oaken log, green, huge, and thick, 
And on its top the stout back-stick ; 
The knotty forestick laid apart, 

And filled between with curious art 
The ragged brush ; then hovering near 
We watched the first red blaze appear. 


Often the great backlog had to be rolled 
in with handspikes, sometimes drawn in by 
a chain and yoke of oxen. The making of 
the fire and its preservation from day to day 
were of equal importance. The covering of 
the brands at night was one of the domestic 
duties, whose non-fulfillment in those match- 
less days often rendered necessary a journey 
with fire shovel to the house of the nearest 
neighbor to obtain glowing coals to start 
again the kitchen frre. 

A domestic luxury seen in well-to-do homes 
was a tin kitchen, a box-like arrangement 
open on one side, which was set next the 
blaze. It stood on four legs, In it bread 
was baked or voasted. Through the kitchen 
passed a spit, which could be turned by an 


FIRESTIDE INDUSTRIES. 287 


external handle ; on it meat was spitted to 
be roasted. 

The brick oven was not used so fre- 
quently, usually but once a week. This was 
a permanent furnishing. When the great 
chimney was built, a solid heap of stones 
was placed for its foundation, and a vast and 
massive structure was reared upon it. On 
one side of the kitchen fireplace, but really 
a part of the chimney whole, was an oven 
which opened at one side into the chimney, 
and below an ash pit with swinging iron 
doors with a damper. To heat this ovena 
great fire of dry wood was kindled within it, 
and kept burning fiercely for some hours. 
Then the coal and ashes were removed, the 
chimney draught and damper were closed, 
and the food to be cooked was placed in the 
heated oven. Great pans of brown bread, 
pots of pork and beans, an Indian pudding, 
a dozen pies, all went into the fiery furnace 
together. 

On Thanksgiving week the great oven was 
heated night and morning for several days. 
To place edibles at the rear of the glowing 
oven, it is plain some kind of a shovel must 
be used; and an abnormally long-handled 


288 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


one was universally found by the oven-side. 
It was called a slice or peel, or fire-peel or 
bread-peel. Such an emblem was it of do- 
mestic utility and unity that a peel and a 
strong pair of tongs were a universal and 
luck-bearing gift to a bride. A good iron 
peel and tongs cost about a dollar and a half. 
The name occurs constantly in old wills 
among kitchen properties. We read of “the 
oven, the mawkin, the bavin, the peel.” 
Sometimes, when the oven was heated, the 
peel was besprinkled with meal, and great 
heaps of rye and Indian dough were placed 
thereon, and by a dextrous and indescriba- 
ble twist thrown upon cabbage leaves on the 
oven-bottom, and thus baked in a haycock 
shape. 

“Shepherd Tom” Hazard, in his inimita- 
ble Founy Cake Papers, thus speaks of the 
old-time methods of baking : — 


Rhineinjun bread, vulgarly called nowadays 
rye and Indian bread, in the olden time was al- 
ways made of one quart of unbolted Rhode Is- 
land rye meal to two quarts of the coarser grained 
parts of Ambrosia (Narragansett corn meal) well 
kneaded and made into large round loaves of the 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 289 


size of a half-peck measure. There are two ways 
of baking it. One way was to fill two large iron 
basins with the kneaded dough and, late in the 
evening, when the logs were well burned down, 
to clear a place in the middle of the fire and 
place the two basins of bread, one on top of the 
other, so as to inclose their contents and press 
them into one loaf. The whole was then care- 
fully covered with hot ashes, with coals on top, 
and left until morning. Another way was to 
place a number of loaves in iron basins in a 
long-heated and well-tempered brick oven — stone 
would not answer as the heat is too brittle — into 
which a cup of water was also placed to make 
the crust soft. The difference between brown 
bread baked in this way, with its thick, soft, 
sweet crust, from that baked in the oven of an 
iron stove I leave to abler pens than mine to 
portray. 


In friendly chimney corners there stood a 
jovial companion of the peel and tongs, 
the flip iron, or loggerhead, or flip-dog, or 
hottle. Lowell wrote :— 


Where dozed a fire of beechen logs that bred 
Strange fancies in its embers golden-red, 

And nursed the loggerhead, whose hissing dip, 
Timed by nice instinct, creamed the bowl of flip. 


290 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Flip was a drink of vast popularity, and I 
believe of potent benefit in those days when 
fierce winters and cold houses made hot 
drinks more necessary to the preservation of 
health than nowadays. I have drunk flip, 
but, like many a much-vaunted luxury of the 
olden time, I prefer to read of it. It is inde- 
scribably burnt and bitter in flavor. 

It may be noted in nearly all old inven- 
tories that a warming-pan is a part of the 
kitchen furnishing. Wood wrote in 1634 of 
exportation to the New England colony, 
“Warming pannes & stewing pannes are of 
necessary use and very good traffick there.” 
One was invoiced in 1642 at 3s. 6d., another 
in 1654 at 5s. A warming-pan was a shallow 
pan of metal, usually brass or iron, about a 
foot in diameter and three or four inches 
deep, with a pierced brass or copper cover. 
It was fitted with a long wooden handle. 
When used, it was filled with coals, and when 
thoroughly heated, was thrust between the 
icy sheets of the bed, and moved up and 
down to give warmth to every corner. Its 
fireside neighbor was the footstove, a box of 
perforated metal in a wooden frame, within 
which hot coals could be placed to warm the 


TIRESIDE INDUSTRIES: 291 


feet of the goodwife during a long winter’s 
drive, or to render endurable the arctic atmos- 
phere of the unheated churches. Often a 
lantern of pierced metal hung near the warm- 
ing-pan. The old-time lanterns, still occa- 
sionally found in New England kitchens or 
barns, form a most interesting study for the 
antiquary, and a much neglected fad for the 
collector. I have one of Elizabethan shape, 
to which, when I found it, fragments of thin 
sheets of horn still clung—the remains of 
the horn slides which originally were en- 
closed in the metal frame. 

High up on the heavy beam over the fire- 
place stood usually a candlestick, an old lamp, 
perhaps a sausage stuffer, or a spice-mill, or 
a candle mold, a couple of wooden noggins, 
sometimes a pipe-tongs. By the side of the 
fireplace hung the soot-blackened, smoke- 
dried almanac, and near it often hung a 
betty-lamp, whose ill-smelling flame could 
supply for conning the pages a closer though 
scarce brighter light than the flickering 
hearth flame. 

By the hearth, sometimes in the chimney 
corner, stood the high-backed settle, a shel- 


292 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


tered seat, while the family dye-pot often was 
used by the children as a chimney bench. 

Many household utensils once in common 
use in New England are now nearly obsolete. 
In many cases the old-time names are disused 
and forgotton, while the object itself may 
still be found with some modern appellation. 
In reading old wills, inventories, and enroll- 
ments, and the advertisements in old news- 
papers, I have made many notes of these 
old names, and have sometimes succeeded, 
though with difficulty, in identifying the 
utensils thus designated. Of course the 
different English shire dialects supply a va- 
riety of local names. In some cases good 
old English words have been retained in 
constant use in New England, while wholly 
archaic in the fatherland. 

In every thrifty New England home there 
stood a tub containing a pickle for salting 
meat. It was called a powdering-tub, or 
powdering-trough. This use of the word 
‘“‘pnowder”’ for salt dates even before Shake- 
speare’s day. 

Grains is an obsolete word for tines or 
prongs. Winthrop wrote in 1643 that a 
snake crawled in the Assembly room, and 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 293 


a parson “held it with his foot and staff with 
a small pair of grains and killed it.” 

Spenser used the word “flasket” thus: 
“In which to gather flowers to fill their flas- 
ket.”’ It was a basket, or hamper, made of 
woven wicker. John Hull, writing in 1675, 
asks that “ Wikker Flasketts”’ be brought to 
him on the Sea Flower. 

A skeel was a small, shallow wooden tub, 
principally used for holding milk to stand 
for cream. It sometimes had one handle. 
The word is now used in Yorkshire. Akin | 
to itis the word keeler, a small wooden tub, 
which is still constantly heard in New Eng- 
land, especially in application to a tub in 
which dishes are washed. Originally, cedar 
keelers were made to hold milk, and a losset 
was also a large flat wooden dish used for 
the same purpose. A skippet was a vessel 
much like a dipper, small and round, with 
long handle, and used for ladling liquids. 

A quarn was a hand-mill for grinding meal, 
and sometimes it stood in a room by itself. 
It was a step in domestic progress beyond 
pounding grain with a pestle in a mortar, 
and was of earlier date than the windmill or 
water-mill. In Wiclif’s translation we read 


294. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


in Matthew xxiv: ‘‘Two wymmen schalen be 
gryndynge in quern,” etc. This word is also 
used by Shakespeare in Mzdsummer Night's 
Dream. In early New England wills the 
word is found, as in one of 1671: “I paire 
Quarnes and Lumber in the quarne house, 
1os.”’ It was sometimes spelled “ cairn,” as 
in a Windham will, and also “quern” and 
jequinie 

Sometimes a most puzzling term will be 
found in one of these old inventories, one 
which appears absolutely incomprehensible. 
Here is one which seems like a riddle of 
which the answer is irrevocably lost: “One 
Billy bassha Pan.” It is found in the kitchen 
list of the rich possessions of Madam De 
Peyster, in 1774, which inventory is pre- 
served.in the family archives at the Van 
Cortlandt Manor House, at Croton-on-Hud- 
son. You can give any answer you please 
to the riddle; but my answer is this, in 
slightly altered verse. I think that Madam 
De Peyster’s cook used that dish to serve :— 


A sort of soup or broth or stew 
Or hotchpot of all sorts of fishes, 

That Greenwich never could outdo, 
Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffron, 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 295 


Soles, onions, garlic, roach and dace ; 
All these were cooked in the Manor kitchen, 
In that one dish of Bouillabaisse. 


The early settlers were largely indebted to 
various forest trees for cheap, available, and 
utilizable material for the manufacture of 
both kitchen utensils and tableware. Wood- 
turning was for many years a recognized 
trade; dish-turner a business title. We find 
Lion Gardiner writing to John Winthrop, 
Jr., in 1652, “My wyfe desireth Mistress 
Lake to get her a dozen of trays for shee - 
hearith that there is a good tray-maker with 
you.” 

Governor Bradford found the Indians using 
wooden bowls, trays, and dishes, and the “ In- 
dian bowls,’ 
trees, were much sought after by housekeep- 


’ 


made from the knots of maple- 


ers till this century. A fine specimen of 
these bowls is now in the Massachusetts 
Historical Society. It was originally taken 
from the wigwam of King Philip. Wooden 
noggins (low bowls with handles) are con- 
stantly named in early inventories, and Mary 
Ring, of Plymouth, thought, in 1633, that a 
“wodden cupp” was valuable enough to 
leave by will as a token of friendship. 


296 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Wooden trenchers, also made by hand, were 
used on the table for more than a century, 
and were universally bequeathed by will, 
as by that of Miles Standish. White pop- 
lar wood made specially handsome dishes. 
Wooden pans were made in which to set 
milk. Wooden bread troughs were used in 
every home. These were oblong, trencher- 
shaped bowls, about a foot and a half in 
length, hollowed and shaped by hand from a 
log of wood. Across the trough ran length- 
wise a stick or rod, on which the flour was 
sifted in a temse, or searce, or sieve. The 
saying, “‘set the Thames on fire,’ is said to 
have been originally “set the temse on 
fire,” meaning that hard labor would, by the 
friction of constant turning, set the wooden 
temse, or sieve, on fire. 

It was not necessary to apply to the wood- 
turner to manufacture these simply shaped 
dishes. Every winter the men and boys of 
the household manufactured every kind of 
domestic utensils and portions of farm imple- 
ments that could be whittled or made from 
wood with simple tools. By the cheerful 
kitchen fireside much of this work was done. 
Indeed, the winter picture of the fireside 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 297 


should always show the figure of a whittling 
boy. They made butter paddles of red 
cherry, salt mortars, pig troughs, pokes, sled 
neaps, ax helves, which were sawn, whittled, 
and carefully scraped with glass; box traps 
and ‘figure 4”’ traps, noggins, keelers, rund- 
lets, flails, cheese-hoops, cheese-ladders, stan- 
chions, handles for all kinds of farm imple- 
ments, and niddy-noddys. Strange to say, 
the latter word is not found in any of our 
dictionaries, though the word is as well 
known in country vernacular as the article 
itself —a hand-reel —or as the old riddle : — 


Niddy-noddy, 
Two heads and one body. 


There were still other wooden vessels. In 
his Philocothonista, or The Drunkard Opened, 
Dissected and Anatomized (1635), Thomas 
Heywood, gives for “carouseing-bowles of 
wood”’ these names: ‘“‘mazers, noggins, whis- 
kins, piggins, cruizes, wassel-bowles, ale- 
bowles, court-dishes, tankards, kannes.”’ 
There were many ways of usefully em- 
ploying the winter evening hours. Some 
thrifty folk a hundred years ago occupied 
spare time in sticking card-teeth in wool- 


208 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


cards. The strips of pierced leather and the 
wire teeth bent in proper shape were sup- 
plied to them by the card manufacturer. 
The long leather strips and boxes filled with 
the bent wire teeth might be seen standing 
in many a country home, and many an even- 
ing by the light of the blazing fire, — for the 
work required little eyesight or dexterity, — 
sat the children on dye-pot, crickets, and 
logs of wood, earning a scant sum to add to 
their ‘‘ broom-money.” 

By the side of the chimney, in New Eng- 
land country houses, always hung a broom 
or besom of peeled birch. These birch 
brooms were a characteristic New England 
production. To make one a straight birch- 
tree from three to four inches in diameter 
was chosen, and about five feet of the trunk 
was cut off. Ten inches from the larger end 
a notch was cut around the stick, and the bark 
peeled off from thence to the end. Then 
with a sharp knife the bared end was care- 
fully split up to the notch in slender slivers, 
which were held back by the broom-maker’s 
left hand until they became too many and too 
bulky to restrain, when they were tied back 
with a string. As the tendency of the sliv- 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 299 


ers or splints was to grow slightly thinner 
toward the notch, there was left in the heart 
of the growing broom a short core, which had 
to be whittled off. When this was done the 
splints were all turned back to their first 
and natural position, a second notch was cut 
an inch above the first one, leaving a strip 
of bark an inch in diameter; the bark was 
peeled off from what was destined to be 
the broom handle, and a series of splints 
was shaved down toward the second notch. 
Enough of the stick was left to form the 
handle; this was carefully whittled until an 
inch or so in diameter, was smoothed, and 
furnished with a hole in the end in which 
to place a string or a strip of leather for sus- 
pension. The second series of splints from 
the handle end was firmly turned down and 
tied with hempen twine over the wholly 
splintered end, and all the splints cut off 
the same length. The inch of bark which 
remained of the original tree helped to hold 
the broom-splints firmly in place. 

When these brooms were partly worn, the 
restraining string could be removed, and the 
flaring splints formed an ideal oven-besom, 
spreading and cleaning the ashes from every 


300 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


corner and crevice. Corn brooms were un- 
known in these country neighborhoods until 
about the middle of the present century. 

A century, and even as late as half a cen- 
tury ago, many a farmer’s son (and daughter 
too) throughout New England earned his or 
her first spending-money by making birch 
brooms for the country stores, from whence 
they were sent to the large cities, especially 
Boston, where there was a constant demand 
forthem. In Northampton, about 1790, one 
shopkeeper kept as many as seven or eight 
hundred of these brooms on hand at one 
time. 

The boys and girls did not grow rich very 
fast at broom-making. Throughout Ver- 
mont, fifty years ago, the uniform price paid 
to the maker for these brooms was but six 
cents apiece, and as he had to work at least 
three evenings to make one broom, — to say 
nothing of the time spent in selecting and 
cutting the birch-tree,— it was not so pro- 
fitable an industry as gathering beech-nuts 
at a dollara bushel. Major Robert Randolph 
told in fashionable London circles, that 
about the year 1750, he carried many a 
loadof these birch brooms on his back ten 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 301 


miles to Concord, that he might thus earn a 
few shillings. Such brooms were known by 
different names in different localities : birch 
brooms, splinter brooms, and Indian brooms. 
The Indians were very proficient in making 
them, and it is said invented them. This 
can readily be believed, for like birch-bark 
canoes and snowshoes, they are examples of 
perfection in utility and in the employment 
of native materials. Squaws wandered over 
certain portions of the country bearing 
brooms on their backs, peddling them from 
house to house for ninepence apiece and a 
drink of cider. In 1806, one minister of 
Haverhill, New Hampshire, had two of these 
brooms given to him as a marriage fee. 
When a Hadley man planted broom corn in 
1797, and made corn brooms to sell, he was 
scornfully met with the remark that broom- 
making was work for Indians and boys. It 
was long ere his industry crowded out the 
sturdy birch brooms. 

There were many domestic duties which 
did not waft sweet “odors of Araby ;” the 
annual spring manufacture of soft soap for 
home consumption was one of them, and 
also one of the most important and most 


302 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


trying of all the household industries. The 
refuse grease from the family cooking was 
stowed away in tubs and barrels through the 
cool winter months in unsavory masses, and 
the wood-ashes from the great fireplaces 
were also thriftily stored until the carefully 
chosen time arrived. The day was selected 
with much deliberation, after close con- 
sultation with that family counselor, the 
almanac, for the moon must be in the right 
quarter, and the tide at the flood, if the soap 
were to “come right.” Then the leach was 
was set outside the kitchen door. Some 
families owned a strongly made leach-tub, 
some used a barrel, others cut a section from 
a great birch-tree, and removed the bark to 
form a tub, which was placed loosely in a 
circular groove in a base made of wood or, 
preferably, of stone. This was not set hori- 
zontally, but was slightly inclined. The tub 
was filled with ashes, and water was scantily 
poured in until the lye trickled or leached 
out of an outlet cut in the groove at the 
base. The “first run”’ of lye was not strong 
enough to be of use, and was poured again 
upon the ashes. The wasted ashes were re- 
plenished again and again, and water poured 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 303 


in small quantities on them, and the lye 
accumulated in a receptacle placed for it. It 
was a universal test that when the lye was 
strong enough to hold up an egg, it was also 
strong enough to use for the soap boiling. 
In the largest iron pot the grease and lye 
were boiled together, often over a great fire 
built in the open air. The leached ashes 
were not deemed refuse and waste; they 
were used by the farmer as a fertilizer. 
Soap made in this way, while rank and 
strong, is so pure and clean that it seems 
almost like a jelly, and shows no trace of 
the vile grease that helped to form it. 

The dancing firelight shone out on no 
busier scene than on the grand candle-dip- 
ping. It had taken weeks to prepare for this 
domestic industry, which was the great 
household event of the late autumn, as soap- 
making was of the spring. Tallow had been 
carefully saved from the domestic animals 
killed on the farm, the honeyed store of 
the patient bee had been robbed of wax to 
furnish materials, and there was still another 
source of supply. 

The summer air of the coast of New Eng- 
land still is sweet with one of the freshest, 


304. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


purest plant-perfumes in the world — the 
scent of bayberry. These dense woody 
shrubs bear profusely a tiny, spicy, wax- 
coated berry; and the earliest colonists 
quickly learned that from this plentiful berry 
could be obtained an inflammable wax, which 
would replace and supplement any lack of 
tallow. The name so universally applied to 
the plant — candleberry — commemorates its 
employment for this purpose. I never pass 
the clumps of bayberry bushes in the early 
autumn without eagerly picking and crush- 
ing the perfumed leaves and berries; and 
the clean, fresh scent seems to awaken a 
dim recollection, —a hereditary memory, — 
and I see, as in a vision, the sober little chil- 
dren of the Puritans standing in the clear 
glowing sunlight, and faithfully stripping 
from the gnarled bushes the waxy candle- 
berries ; not only affording through this occu- 
pation material assistance to the household 
supplies, but finding therein health, and I 
am sure happiness, if they loved the bay- 
berries as I, their descendant, do. 

The method of preparing this wax was 
simple; it still exists in a few Plymouth 
County households. ‘The berries are simply 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 305 


boiled with hot water in a kettle, and the 
resolved wax skimmed off the top, refined, 
and permitted to harden into cakes or can- 
dles. The references in old-time records 
to this bayberry wax are too numerous to be 
recounted. A Virginian governor, Robert 
Beverley (for the bayberry and its wax was 
known also in the South as myrtleberry 
wax), gave, perhaps, the clearest description 
of it:— 


A pale green brittle wax of a curious green 
color, which by refining becomes almost trans- 
parent. Of this they made candles which are 
never greasy to the touch nor melt with lying in 
the hottest weather; neither does the snuff of 
these ever offend the smell, like that of a tallow 
candle ; but instead of being disagreeable, if an 
accident puts a candle out, it yields a pleasant 
fragrancy to all that are in the room; insomuch 
that nice people often put them out on purpose 
to have the incense of the expiring snuff. 


It is true that the balmy breath of the 
bayberry is exhaled even on its funeral pyre. 
A bayberry candle burns like incense ; and 
I always think of its perfume as truly the 
incense to the household hearth-gods of an 
old New England home. 


306 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


Bayberry wax was a standard farm-product, 
a staple article of traffic, till this century, and 
it was constantly advertised in the newspa- 
pers. As early as 1712, Thomas Lechmere 
wrote to John Winthrop, Jr. :— 

I am now to beg one favour of you, that you 
secure for me all the bayberry wax you can pos- 
sibly lay yor hands on. What charge you shall 
be at securing it shall be thankfully paid you. 
You must take a care that they do not putt too 
much tallow among it, being a custome and 
cheate they have gott. 


When the candle-dipping began, a fierce 
fire was built in the fireplace, and over it was 
hung the largest house kettle, half filled with 
water and melted tallow, or wax. Candle- 
rods were brought down from the attic, or 
pulled out from under the edge of beams, 
and placed about a foot and a half apart, 
reaching from chair to chair. 

Boards were placed underneath to save 
the spotless floor from greasy drippings. 
Across these rods were laid, like the rounds 
of a ladder, shorter sticks or reeds to which 
the wicks were attached at intervals of a few 
inches. The wicks of loosely spun cotton or 
tow were dipped time and time again into the 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES, 307 


melted tallow, and left to harden between 
each dipping. Of course, if the end of the 
kitchen (where stood the rods and hung the 
wicks) were very cold, the candles grew 
quickly, since they hardened quickly; but 
they were then more apt to crack. When 
they were of proper size, they were cut off, 
spread in a sunny place in the garret to 
bleach, and finally stored away in candle- 
boxes. Sometimes the tallow was poured 
into molds; when, of course, comparatively 
few candles could be made ina day. In some 
communities itinerant candle-makers carried 
molds from house to house, and assisted in 
the candle manufacture. 

These candles were placed in candle- 
sticks, or in large rooms were set in rude 
chandeliers of strips of metal with sockets, 
called candle-beams. Handsome rooms had 
sconces, and the kitchen often had a sliding 
stand by which the candle could be adjusted 
at a desired height. Snuffers were as indis- 
pensable as candlesticks, and were some- 
times called snuffing-iron, or snit—a word 
not in the Century Dictionary —from the old 
English verb, “snyten,” to blow out. The 
snuffers lay in a little tray called a snuffer- 


308 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


tray, snuffer-dish, snuffer-boat, snuffer-slice, 
or snuffer-pan. Save-alls, a little wire frame 
to hold up the last burning end of candle, 
were another contrivance of our frugal an- 
cestors. 

In no way was a thrifty housewife better 
known than through her abundant stock of 
symmetrical candles; and nowhere was a 
skilful and dextrous hand more needed than 
in shaping’ them. Still, candles were not 
very costly if the careless housewife chose 
to purchase them. The Boston Evening 
Post of October 5, 1767, has this advertise- 
ment: ‘“ Dip’d Tallow Candles Half a Pis- 
tareen the single Pound & Cheaper by Cwt.” 

In many a country household some old- 
time frugalities linger, but the bounteous 
oil-wells of Pennsylvania have rendered can- 
dles not only obsolete, but too costly for 
country use, and by a turn of fashion they 
have become comparatively an article of 
luxury, but still seem to throw an old-time 
refinement wherever their soft rays shine. 

An account of housewifely duties in my 
great-grandmother’s home was thus written, 
in halting rhyme, by one of her sons when 
he too was old : — 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 309 


The boys dressed the flax, the girls spun the tow, 

The music of mother’s footwheel was not slow. 

The flax on the bended pine distaff was spread, 

With squash shell of water to moisten the thread. 

Such were the pianos our mothers did keep 

Which they played on while spinning their children to 
sleep. 

My mother I’m sure must have borne off the medal, 

For she always was placing her foot on the pedal. 

The warp and the filling were piled in the room, 

Till the web was completed and fit for the loom, 

Then labor was pleasure, and industry smiled, 

And the wheel and the loom every trouble beguiled, 

And there at the distaff the good wives were made. 

Thus Solomon’s precepts were fully obeyed. 


The manufacture of the farm-reared wool 
was not so burdensome and tedious a pro- 
cess as that of flax, but it was far from 
pleasant. The fleeces of wool had to be 
opened out and cleaned of all sticks, burrs, 
leaves, feltings, tar-marks, and the dirt which 
always remained after months’ wear by the 
sheep; then it had to be sorted out for 
dyeing, which latter was a most unpleasant 
process. Layers of the various colors of 
wools after being dyed were rolled together 
and carded on coarse wool-cards, again and 
again, then slightly greased by a disagree- 
able and tiresome method, then run into 
rolls. The wool was spun on the great wheel 


310 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


which stood in the kitchen with the reel and 
swifts, and often by the glowing firelight 
the mother spun. A tender and beautiful 
picture of this domestic scene has been 
drawn by Dr. Gurdon Russell, of Hartford, 
in his Up Neck in 1825. 

My mother was spinning with the great wheel, 
the white rolls of wool lay upon the platform, 
and as they were spun upon the spindle, she 
turning the wheel with one hand, and with ex- 
tended arm and delicate fingers holding the roll 
in the other, stepping backwards and forwards 
lightly till it was spun into yarn, it formed a 
picture to me, sitting upon a low stool, which 
can never be forgotten. Her movements were 
every grace, her form all of beauty to me who 
opposite sat and was watching her dextrous 
fingers. 


The manufacture of flax into linen mate- 
rial was ever felt to be of vast importance, 
and was encouraged by legislation from ear- 
liest colonial days, but it received a fresh 
impulse in New England through the im- 
migration of about one hundred Irish fam- 
ilies from Londonderry. They settled in 
New Hampshire on the Merrimac about 
1719. They spun and wove by hand, but 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 31I 


with far more skill than prevailed among 
those English settlers who had already be- 
come Americans. They established a manu- 
factory according to Irish methods, and at- 
tempts at a similar establishment were made 
in Boston. There was much public excite- 
ment over spinning. Women, rich as well 
aS poor, appeared on Boston Common with 
their wheels, thus making spinning a pop- 
ular holiday recreation. A brick building 
was erected as a spinning-school, and a 
tax was placed in 1737 to support it. But 
this was not an industrial success, the ex- 
citement died out, the public spinning-school 
lost its ephemeral popularity, and the wheel 
became again simply a domestic duty and 
pride. 

For many years after this, housewives had 
everywhere flax and hemp to spin and weave 
in their homes, and the preparation of these 
staples seems to us to-day a monumental 
labor. On almost every farm might be seen 
a patch of the pretty flax, ripening for the 
hard work of pulling, rippling, rotting, break- 
ing, swingling, and combing, which all had to 
be done before it came to the women’s hands 
for spinning. The seed was sown broad- 


312 COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


cast, and allowed to grow till the bobs or 
bolls were ripe. The flax was then pulled 
and spread neatly in rows to dry. This 
work could be done by boys. Then men 
whipped or threshed or rippled out all the 
seed to use for meal; afterwards the flax 
stalks were allowed to le for some time in 
water until the shives were thoroughly rot- 
ten, when they were cleaned and once more 
thoroughly dried and tied in bundles. Then 
came work for strong men, to break the flax 
on the ponderous flaxbreak, to get out the 
hard “hexe” or “ bun,’ and to swingle it 
with a swingle knife, which was somewhat 
like a wooden dagger. Active men could 
swingle forty pounds a day on the swingling- 
board. It was then hetchelled or combed 
or hackled by the housewife, and thus the 
rough tow was gotten out, when it was 
straightened and made ready for the spruce 
distaff, round which it was finally wrapped. 
The hatchelling was tedious work and irri- 
tating to the lungs, for the air was filled 
with the fluffy particles which penetrated 
everywhere. The thread was then spun on 
a “little wheel.” It was thought that to 
spin two double skeins of linen, or four 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 313 


double skeins of tow, or to weave six yards 
of linen, was a good day’s work. For a 
week’s work a girl received fifty cents and 
Penerikcep, 9) She’ thus sotsless than a cent 
and a half a yard for weaving. The skeins 
of linen thread went through many tedious 
processes of washing and bleaching before 
being ready for weaving ; and after the cloth 
was woven it was “bucked” in a strong 
lye, time and time again, and washed out 
an equal number of times. Then it was 
‘belted’ with a maple beetle on a smooth, 
flat stone; then washed and spread out to 
bleach in the pure sunlight. Sometimes the 
thread, after being spun and woven, had been 
washed and belted a score of times ere it 
was deemed white and soft enough to use. 
The little girls could spin the “swingling 
tow’’ into coarse twine, and the older ones 
make “all tow” and “tow and linen” and 
“harden’”’ stuffs to sell. 

To show the various duties attending the 
manufacture of these domestic textiles by a 
Boston woman of intelligence and social 
standing, as late as 1788, let me quote a few 
entries from the diary of the wife of Col. 
John May :— 


314. COLONIAL DAMES AND GOODWIVES. 


A large kettle of yarn to attend upon. Lucre- 
tia and self rinse our through many waters, get 
out, dry, attend to, bring in, do up and sort 110 
score of yarn, this with baking and ironing. 

Went to hackling flax. 

Rose early to help Ruth warp and put a piece 
in the loom. 

Baking and hackling yarn. A long web of 
tow to whiten and weave. 


The wringing out of this linen yarn was 
most exhausting, and the rinsing in various 
waters was no simple matter in those days, 
for the water did not conveniently run into 
the houses through pipes and conduits, but 
had to be laboriously carried in pailfuls from 
a pump, or more frequently raised in a 
bucket from a well. 

I am always touched, when handling the 
homespun linens of olden times, with a sense 
that the vitality and strength of those endur- 
ing women, through the many tedious and 
exhausting processes which they had _ be- 
stowed, were woven into the warp and woof 
with the flax, and gave to the old webs of 
linen their permanence and their beautiful 
texture. How firm they are, and how lus- 
trous! And how exquisitely quaint and fine 


FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES. 315 


are their designs ; sometimes even Scriptural 
designs and lessons are woven into them. 
They are, indeed, a beautiful expression of 
old-time home and farm life. With their 
close-woven, honest threads runs this finer 
beauty, which may be impalpable and imper- 
ceptible to a stranger, but which to me is 
real and ever-present, and puts me truly in 
touch with the life of my forbears. But, 
alas, it is through intuition we must learn of 
this old-time home life, for it has vanished 
from our sight, and much that is beautiful 
and good has vanished with it. 

The associations of the kitchen fireside 
that linger in the hearts of those who are 
now old can find no counterpart in our 
domestic surroundings to-day. The welcome 
cheer of the open fire, which graced and 
beautified even the humblest room, is lost 
forever with the close gatherings of the 
family, the household occupations, the home- 

spun industries which formed and im- 
printed in the mind of every 
child the picture of 
a home. 


DATE DUE 





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